EU-US Data Sharing Deal Can't Be Trusted, Top Court Aide Says

Advocate General Yves Bot, an adviser to the European Union’s top court, warned that American spies have almost unfettered access to information about European users of Facebook and other social media thanks to an illegal trans-Atlantic pact on data-transfers.

Secret US orders forcing technology companies to hand over personal data linked to EU citizens can’t continue under an “invalid” data-transfer accord struck 15 years ago, Bot said in a non-binding opinion. The EU court follows such advice in a majority of cases. EU citizens “who are Facebook users are not informed that their personal data will be generally accessible to the United States security agencies,” said Bot. National data privacy watchdogs have the power, “where appropriate,” to suspend the transfer of such data to servers located in the US, including in the case concerning the data of European Facebook users, he said. The EU Court of Justice should scrap the 2000 Safe Harbor decision because it doesn’t protect citizens from the 28-nation bloc enough from an “unwarranted interference” with their rights and a “large-scale collection of personal data,” he said.