The European Union's highest court has struck down a major data transfer agreement with the United States in a ruling made public Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2020) The European Union's highest court has struck down a major data transfer agreement with the United States in a ruling made public Thursday.
In a long-winded case called Schrems II, the EU Court of Justice was forced to examine whether European digital privacy laws were at risk of being violated under the EU-US Data Protection Shield, which allows for data to be transferred, stored and processed in the United States.
"The Court of Justice invalidates Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield," the court wrote in a statement on the decision.
The court's reasoning, it explains, stems from the fact that US national security and law enforcement take precedence over personal privacy.
"The requirements of US national security, public interest and law enforcement have primacy, thus condoning interference with the fundamental rights of persons whose data are transferred to that third country," the court's statement read.
The Data Protection Shield is the main mechanism under which US tech giants process personal and financial data of users from the EU. This decision will affect the way in which they operate on the territory of the bloc.
"The limitations on the protection of personal data arising from the domestic law of the United States on the access and use by US public authorities... are not circumscribed in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law," the court said.
The ruling, however, kept in place the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) which allow for bulk transfer of data outside the EU, but the court maintained that this should be done under a strict case-by-case evaluation of the data's third-party destinations and the local privacy laws.
Max Schrems, an Austrian citizen who has been in legal battles with social media giant Facebook since 2015 over the company's privacy policy. This is the second case that reaches the upper echelons of European judiciary, and the second time the court decides in his favor.
The European Union has taken an increasingly competitive stance towards US tech companies' lax approach to digital privacy, especially since whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed mass surveillance operations of US intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
