European Ruling On Privacy: US Safe Harbour Agreement With Facebook Invalid Citing US Administration Interference With Privacy Rights

The European Court of Justice decided last week that the Safe Harbour Agreement Facebook was relying on to transfer data to its US servers was invalid.  Further, the Court decided European national regulators can investigate whether data transfers comply with European law.

The Court's Press Release in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner noted that under Safe Harbour, US authorities were able to access personal data transferred to the United States.  Such access is interference with the fundamental rights of persons.  It seems the European Court was not accepting that an individual could contract out of fundamental privacy rights.

Various publications are already opining on the significant implications on data flow and trade between Europe and the US.  No doubt there will be significant ramifications.  We will follow this closely.