Facebook and Apple will not be pursued in Ireland over the monitoring of EU citizens’ personal data.As both companies have their European bases in Ireland, local data protection laws apply.
The Irish Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) said the exchange of personal data of Irish subsidiaries of Facebook and Apple with the US is in line with safe harbour principles, according to documents published by the Austrian student group Europe-v-Facebook on Thursday.
In late June, student group Europe-v-Facebook filed a barrage of complaints against European subsidiaries of major technology companies, claiming their data collection runs afoul of European privacy laws. The complaints were filed in Ireland against Facebook and Apple, in Luxembourg against Skype and Microsoft, and in Germany against Yahoo.
The group said that companies such as Facebook Ireland should not be allowed to export Europeans’ data to the US if the data is then forwarded to the NSA for massive surveillance of personal information without probable cause, the group said in a news release.
The complaints were filed after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing NSA surveillance programs.
In a formal response to Europe-v-Facebook, however, Irish data protection authorities said that they see no breach of safe harbour protections originally passed in 2000.
"We consider that an Irish-based data controller has met their data protection obligations in relation to the transfer of personal data to the US if the US-based entity is Safe Harbour registered," wrote Ciara O’Sullivan, senior compliance officer of the Irish ODPC.
"I can advise that we do not consider that there are grounds for an investigation under the Irish Data Protection Acts given that Safe Harbour requirements have been met and on that basis we cannot identify that a contravention of the Acts has taken place," she added in a follow-up e-mail to the group on Wednesday.
EU lawmakers have been critical of current data protection measures. Last Friday, Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission and the commissioner responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship said: "The safe harbour agreement may not be so safe after all… US data protection standards are lower than our European ones. I have informed ministers that the Commission is working on a solid assessment of the Safe Harbour Agreement which we will present before the end of the year."
The European Parliament and European industry have also been asking for a review, and the Commission will take note of the call from data protection and privacy advocates in Germany for an assessment, a Commission official said on Thursday.
A broad coalition of mainly German civil rights organisations published a list of 12 demands directed at policy makers in reaction to the NSA surveillance programme.
The open letter was signed by groups including the German digital rights group Digitale Gesellschaft, Greenpeace Germany, the German Journalist Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Chaos Computer Club.
The groups called on governments, national parliaments and European institutions for a consistent implementation and defense of the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. They also want an obligation to individually notify affected persons after every act of digital surveillance or inspection and called for the disclosure of every agreement, law and action that has an adverse effect on the right to informational self determination.
IDG News Service
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