European Union reevaluating data sharing agreement with US in wake of NSA leaks

In a two-page written response to formal complaints filed last month by Austrian students, Ireland’s top data protection office said that Apple, Facebook, and other tech companies with Irish offices have met their obligations with respect to European Union (EU) law—despite all the newly disclosed PRISM and National Security Agency (NSA) related surveillance. The Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) cited the 1998 "Safe Harbor" agreement, which essentially provides a means for non-EU companies operating in the 28-member bloc to come to a middle ground concerning the EU's more stringent data protection laws versus the more lax laws on the other side of the Atlantic. At the same time, data protection officials in Germany are fuming (Google Translate), and wrote a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who is up for reelection at the end of September 2013), calling for the entire Safe Harbor program to be suspended. The German Federal Minister for Special Affairs, Ronald Pofalla, also appeared before a parliamentary committee in Berlin to address cooperation between German intelligence and the NSA.