The European Union and the United States cannot agree on the issue of data transfer between their territories. The Court of Justice of the European Union quashed the two previous contracts because of US surveillance laws. Despite this decision, Meta claims that the United States can continue to receive data from Europeans, while ensuring their safety.
Meta disagrees with European Court of Justice on data transfer issue
According to internal documents, to which Politico had access, Mark Zuckerberg’s group counts to disagree with the court decisions of the European Union to continue sending data from Europeans to the United States. While the highest European court considers that Washington does not respect the data of the citizens of the Union, Meta disagrees and intends to let it be known. Lawyers for the company claim that “The European Court of Justice is wrong”.
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The conclusion of the American giant is as follows: the laws and regulations in force in the United States are safe for data coming from the European Union. An argument for continue to send data across the Atlantic. In one of the internal documents, we can read this: “The conclusion of our assessment shows that US law and practice offer protection of personal data essentially equivalent to the level of protection required by European law”.
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However, the Privacy Shield agreement had indeed been invalidated by the European Court of Justice in the summer of 2020. Same thing with the Safe Harbor agreement a few years earlier. The European Court of Justice says that Washington and its regulations do not provide adequate protection data from the European Union, because the law on surveillance is too intrusive compared to European standards. To help companies transfer data outside of Europe, the Court has still put in place standard contractual clauses (CCS).
Despite this, Meta claims that “The changes made to US law and practices since the July 2020 judgment must be taken into account”. As an example, the company cites the United States Federal Trade Commission as a watchdog body able to ensure data protection with “Unprecedented strength and vigor”. Today, companies can, in theory, continue to ship data outside of Europe, if they can prove that it is sufficiently protected.