European Union cracks down on data sharing

He commented that the Court’s message was clear – “mass surveillance is not possible in Europe (and is) against fundamental rights”.

“We have grave concerns about the long-term implications this Judgement will have on the way Europe transfers data to the rest of the world”. The agreement facilitates thousands of companies in conveniently transferring personal data across the Atlantic.

The ruling came years after NSA whistleblower and former employee, Edward Snowden, revealed the massive spying programmes of the intelligence agency.

Meanwhile, the Irish data protection commissioner Helen Dixon has instructed her legal team “to take whatever actions are necessary to bring the case back as soon as practicable before the Irish high court”.

The agreement has allowed for the free transfer of information by companies from the European Union to U.S. It has been seen as a boost to trade since, absent such a deal, swift and smooth data exchange over the Internet would be much more hard. The new ruling could make companies keep European users’ personal data in Europe, which would in turn require them to have enough data storage capacity there.

Re/code pointed out that the effect of Tuesday’s ruling may not be felt by numerous tech giants due to the fact that they have established other methods to enable the worldwide transfer of personal data, such as building European-based data centers so the data never actually leaves. As a result of today’s ruling, however, the complaint Irish authorities must judge the complaint based on its own merits without regard for Safe Harbor.

Tech companies including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft downplayed the decision’s impact, conducting business as usual under existing treaties.

The agreement streamlined the tedious process USA companies had to go through in order to comply with European regulations. They called on the European Commission to complete a new safe harbor agreement with the United States, a deal that has been negotiated for more than two years and could limit the fallout from the court’s decision.

Penny Pritzker, US Secretary of Commerce, said that this decision would put a risk to the thriving digital economy of trans-Atlantic.

It added the us was bound to disregard protective rules laid down by Safe Harbour where they conflict with such requirements.

That could change after Europe’s top court Tuesday declared invalid a 15-year-old pact allowing the unfettered transfer of personal data outside the European Union’s 28 countries. As far as the ECJ is concerned, privacy watchdogs should be required to monitor whether or not U.S. firms have solid measures in place to protect data. While the Safe Harbor agreement is in favor of the United States, and can always subject to interference by authorities, a few procedures still need to be followed.

In its decision, the European court held that the 500 million citizens affected by the data transfers did not have the right to file legal cases in United States courts in case they believe that their privacy had been violated.