Tech companies can again transfer Dutch personal data to the US

From this Tuesday, the personal data of Europeans can again be transferred to the United States. This is useful for technology companies such as Meta, Google and Amazon. But privacy campaigners say they are challenging the European Commission’s decision because EU citizens could still be tailed by US intelligence services.

The European Commission believes that the United States has withdrawn previous objections from the European Court of Justice. For example, access to EU data by US intelligence services is limited to what is “necessary and proportionate” to protect national security.

The US will also have a special court where EU citizens can seek redress. If this Data Protection Review Court finds that their data has been collected unfairly, it may be deleted. According to the European Commission, this tribunal is an independent organisation.

Privacy was not in the United States

The personal data of Europeans cannot simply be transmitted to countries outside the EU. This is only allowed to “third countries” which protect the privacy of individuals as well as the EU. In 2020, the European Court of Justice ruled that this protection was not in order in the United States.

The privacy organization None of Your Business had filed a complaint about it and got it right. The reason for this was revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, which showed that the US intelligence service NSA was storing personal data on a large scale and spying on foreigners. The overall surveillance was disproportionate, the court found.

Last year, the United States promised to improve privacy protections for EU citizens, following talks between US President Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. “Following the tentative agreement I reached with President Biden last year, the United States has made unprecedented commitments to establish the new framework,” von der Leyen said in a statement. She talks about an important step to give citizens the assurance that their data is safe.

The US is still allowed to track strangers on the internet

But None of Your Business says the underlying problem has not been resolved, calling the European Commission’s decision pr. “Despite the European Commission’s public relations efforts, little change will be made to US legislation or the EU’s approach.”

According to NOYB, the problem lies with the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This law has been in force since 2008 authorizes the United States government to monitor foreign persons who are outside the United States, with the forced assistance of companies or organizations that facilitate electronic communications. Read technology companies. This law has not changed now. This is why NOYB says it will challenge the decision of the European Commission.

“Simply announcing that something is ‘new’, ‘robust’ or ‘effective’ is not enough for the Court of Justice,” says NOYB’s Max Schrems, referring to the European Commission’s press release . “We would need changes to US surveillance law to make this work, and there just aren’t any.”

“Good for economic ties”

Joe Biden has a decree signed to better guarantee the privacy of strangers. But it also stipulates that mass data collection is permitted, for example to protect the United States against terrorism.

According to von der Leyen, the decision to initiate the data flow strengthens economic ties between the EU and the United States. Tech companies can once again store Europeans’ data on servers in the United States. Since 2020, they had to do this in European data centers. In May, technology company Meta, owner of Facebook, a fine of 1.2 billion euros from the EU, due to the transfer of personal data of European users to the United States.

Read also:

Court of the EU: privacy protection in the United States is insufficient

The European Court of Justice finds that the personal data that companies send from Europe to the United States is less well protected than in the European Union.