United States joins case over Facebook data transfers from EU

Computer screens display the Facebook sign-in screen in this photo illustration taken in Golden, Colorado, United States July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) – The United States can join a landmark case on the legality of cross-border data transfers, an Irish court ruled on Tuesday in a move that gives U.S. authorities a platform to defend their surveillance laws before the European Union’s top court.

The U.S. authorities had asked the Irish High Court to be a party to the case taken by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems against Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which has its European headquarters in Dublin, over data transfers from the EU to the United States.

The case, which aims to determine whether personal privacy is properly protected from U.S. government surveillance, is expected to be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) following a request by Irish data protection authorities in May.

“The United States has a significant and bona fide interest in the outcome of these proceedings,” Justice Brian McGovern said.

“The imposition of restrictions on the transfer of such data would have potentially considerable adverse effects on EU-U.S. commerce and could affect U.S. companies significantly.”

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The ruling means that U.S. authorities can potentially offer legal opinion or testimony in the case.

Revelations three years ago from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. surveillance caused political outrage in Europe and stoked mistrust of big U.S. technology companies such as Facebook, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Schrems launched a legal challenge to the Safe Harbour commercial data pact in 2013, ultimately resulting in it being replaced by a new framework that came into force this month.

“The fact that the U.S. government intervenes in this lawsuit, shows that we hit them from a relevant angle,” Schrems said in a statement.

“The U.S. can largely ignore the political critique on US mass surveillance, but it cannot ignore the economic relevance of EU-U.S. data flows.”

Source: Reuters

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Vladimir Ribakov

Following 11+ years of trading experience, trading my own accounts as well as for hedge funds and brokerages, I have decided to fulfill my destiny and to personally mentor Forex and Commodities traders. When I released the “Broker Nightmare” (software that hides trades from brokers) 8 years ago, I found an overwhelming number of frustrated people who genuinely wanted to learn how to trade the Forex market, but instead found themselves scammed and misled. Over the years I have also release other trading systems based on my trading strategies, and met a lot of people on my worldwide Forex seminars. We’ve formed a close Forex community and we meet once or twice a year in various locations in Europe.