Relations between the EU and the US just got a little
icier. The European Court of Justice has found that the US data
protection laws are not good enough to protect the personal
information of EU citizens.
The EU has always been a little suspicious of the US'
approach to its citizens' rights to privacy, however the Safe
Harbour pact had until recently satisfied the EU regulators. Under
the Safe Harbour Privacy Principles, organisations could transfer
personal information from the EU to the US if they had (self)
certified that they would comply with EU data protection
standards.
But that was put to an end last month when Austrian citizen Max
Schrems complained about Facebook sending his personal information
off to the US, particularly in light of Edward Snowden's claims
of just how often the US intelligence services have a sneaky look
at it. The Court shared Max's (and Edward's) concerns, and
found that the risk of US government interference was too great,
and
