The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor

Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by icebraining on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @09:44AM (#10425315)

The European intelligence agencies were trading info with the NSA, so European companies can be under the same sorts of threats. It's a red herring.

But the court wasn't asked to decide about the actions of the intelligence agencies, it was asked to decide on a complaint against Facebook.

Personally I think this is really about protectionism and the NSA provides a convenient excuse given European intelligence agency involvement.

On the contrary; if anything, it was the Safe Harbour process that was supported on a convenient excuse, which the Commission allowed despite being clear from the start that the US didn't offer the necessary privacy protections to comply with the Directive. The court has just stated the obvious.

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by Zach_the_Lizard on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @10:05AM (#10425463)

>But the court wasn't asked to decide about the actions of the intelligence agencies, it was asked to decide on a lawsuit against Facebook.

You're right, and as the basis of its ruling it decided that intelligence agency action caused a violation of the law. Given that intelligence agencies in the EU were willing partners in NSA spying in clear violation of US and EU law it stands to reason that much of the EU is similarly incompatible with these laws. Why can we store data in Germany when the BND is shipping your data to the NSA, but not America, where the NSA is doing it first hand (and might be doing it on its own in Germany anyways)?

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by toyg on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @10:54AM (#10425819)

Because a German citizen has several ways to make the BND accountable through the legal system, including voting to change such legal system; but he has no recourse against the NSA (short of starting a war).

You are mixing political responsibility and legal responsibility.

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by Aloisius on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @12:43PM (#10426632)

I'm not entirely clear on the EU's legal structure. Does an Italian citizen have ways to hold the BND accountable for accessing their personal data held in Germany?

I assume an Italian citizen can't vote to change Germany's legal system.

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by wongarsu on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @12:57PM (#10426712)

An Italian citizen can hold Germany accountable for implementing and enforcing EU privacy laws and directives (through the EU courts). If that doesn't give him sufficient legal standing he can vote for representatives to pass stricter EU legislation.

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by vidarh on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @11:09AM (#10425944)

If the BND is allowed to do things that places Germany in violation of EU law, then that is an issue, yes, but it is an issue that was out of scope of what the court was asked to consider.

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by icebraining on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @10:09AM (#10425490)

Why can we store data in Germany when the BND is shipping your data to the NSA, but not America, where the NSA is doing it first hand (and might be doing it on its own in Germany anyways)?

For the same reason we could store data in the US right until this decision.

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Re:The Collapse of the US-EU Safe Harbor by pjc50 on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @10:33AM (#10425648)

The legal action has only just got going: https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2015/04/amnesty-in...

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