No Safe Harbor: EU Privacy Ruling Hits Apple, Google

News Investors ^ | October 6, 2015 | by Michelle Chandler

[Swordmaker]

A major European court victory for privacy advocates raises doubts about how U.S. tech giants Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)-owned Google and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) will be able to transfer and monetize data from millions of European users. The European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that national regulators in the European Union can override the 15-year-old Safe Harbor agreement used by about 4,500 companies, saying that it violates the privacy rights of Europeans by exposing them to U.S. government surveillance.

The decision is expected to ignite a rush by U.S. tech firms to preserve their ability to transfer personal information about European users to the U.S. before regulators suspend data flows or impose fines on businesses.

Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems walks through the hallway of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

Revoking the Safe Harbor agreement will "disrupt not just the thousands of U.S. and European companies that currently depend on the Safe Harbor to do business across the Atlantic but also the broader digital economy," said Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in a statement.

[Swordmaker]

An EU Court ruling has just tossed a key law allowing the collection of personal data which many Internet companies, such as Google, rely on for their business model's success into chaos! Of course, the headline claims it will have a big impact on Apple as well, but that's probably more to get clicks, as Apple is not in the business of collecting personal data for profit. — PING!

Internet Privacy Chaos due to EU ruling?
Ping!

The Latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword “ApplePingList” on Freerepublic’s Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Swordmaker]

Ping for all of your list on privacy issue. . . Major EU ruling tosses out law that permits Facebook’s, Yahoo’s, Google’s and lots of other’s advertising business models. . .

[MarchonDC09122009]

Good summary post.
Related info on the following earlier thread:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3345317/posts

This may or may not be great for privacy, depending upon resulting new rules.
One things for sure - it’s disruptive as hell for tens of thousands of US businesses that handle EU citizen’s data.

IAPP.org, EFF.org, and EPIC.org will likely have daily updates.

[MarchonDC09122009]

Correction - thousands of companies that handle EU citizen’s data.

[An.American.Expatriate]

... transfer and monetize data from millions of European users. ...it violates the privacy rights of Europeans by exposing them to U.S. government surveillance.

The EU was unable to earn any money on the monetization of the EU User Data. The "U.S. government surveillance" aspect is just thrown in to muddy the water - especially since the EU does as much, if not more, surveillance of it's people than we do.

This is all about the money.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Time for us to attempt to break another European auto maker. That’ll teach ‘em.

[BullDog108]

lol

[An.American.Expatriate]

VW is doing fine on their own, they need no help from Comrade Obama...

[ThunderSleeps]

EU clears the way to re-assert privacy ??? — ANDROID PING!
Android Ping! If you want on or off the Android Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

You are correct. The EU couldn’t care less about privacy, this is about getting a leg up on US based businesses.

[dayglored]

EU privacy ruling hits Apple, Google; Microsoft may not be far behind ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".