SP’s: he European Union has many a times been apprehensive of the US-based tech companies, especially on the matters of privacy and data security. Now, Germany has raised concerns over the illegal data transfers from the EU to the US by the global companies like Facebook and Google.
The rift between the European and American companies is not hidden. Be it the automobile sector, industry or the tech conglomeration. In a recent development, Germany has just expressed its concerns over the intercontinental data transfers and announced investigations over the US based tech companies such as Google and Facebook.
The illegal data transfer accusation spiralled after an Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems filed a case against Facebook in Ireland on the charge of his privacy infringement due to NSA’s mass surveillance programs.
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in its decision has given authority to the local data protection bodies to check if the data transfer flow under the 15-year-old Safe Harbour framework flouted any of the European Union laws, thus, authorized to investigate Google and Facebook. The concern of the officials is that the data from the EU isn’t safe from the US-based intelligence servers.
While the case has been registered against the US-based tech companies in EU and probe been started, a US district court has dismissed a lawsuit against NSA’s mass surveillance programs because nobody is unable to prove such.
The EU and USA, along with many other countries, have recently signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that is considered to be the worst possible thing for the Internet with regards to proprietary rights, but the trust deficit between the two powers over the privacy violation is ever widening.
EU announced on Monday about its principle-based agreement with the USA over a new trans-Atlantic data-transfer agreement. EU’s Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said, “There is agreement on these matters in principle, but we are still discussing how to ensure that these commitments are binding enough to fully meet the requirements of the court”.
The new treaty will try to ensure a transparent data transfer process and while keeping the privacy of the citizens intact.