Many US companies failing to uphold EU privacy rules, privacy group claims in FTC complaint

At least thirty US companies are "failing to provide" safeguards for European citizens promised by the US government, a new complaint alleges.

A filing submitted to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) claims Salesforce, Adobe, AOL, and other companies are "compiling, using, and sharing EU consumers' personal information without their awareness and meaningful consent, in violation the Safe Harbor framework."

The US-EU Safe Harbor regulations allow European data, which is generally not allowed to leave the continent, to enter and reside on US servers so long as the same strong data protection and privacy rules are adhered to.