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While most of the newspapers were distracting the public with the antics of Mark Zuckerberg, a European Union High Court raised 11 important questions regarding privacy (warning for PDF) that will affect large data-gathering operations like Facebook. The 11 questions have been passed upwards to the most senior EU court and are based on a current case started by Max Schrems.
The Irish High Court referral, published on Thursday and due to be submitted to the ECJ by the end of April, stems from a case brought by an Austrian privacy activist against the methods used by Facebook to store user data on U.S. servers following revelations in 2013 of mass U.S. surveillance practices.
[...] The High Court's five-page referral asks the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) if the Privacy Shield - under which companies certify they comply with EU privacy law when transferring data to the United States - does in fact mean that the United States "ensures an adequate level of protection".
Opponents can still appeal the court's referral any time until the end of the month. The proposed Privacy Shield legislation is the EU's follow up framework to cover transfers of personal data to outside the EU. It is being written as a replacement for the now invalidated International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles. The Safe Harbour agreement was brought down, after an earlier two-year lawsuit (Case C-362/14) by Max Schrems, because of its inadequate protections in light of the Snowden revelations.
From Reuters : EU's top court asked to probe Facebook U.S. data transfers
The Irish Times : High Court sets out 11 questions for ECJ on EU-US data transfers
Ars Technica : Facebook data transfers to be examined by EU court, Irish judge rules
See also an intial analysis, http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/sh2/PA-ref.pdf
Earlier on SN:
Austria Resident Max Schrems is Organizing a Privacy-Oriented Class-Action Suit Against Facebook
On its Way: A Google-Free, NSA-Free IT Infrastructure for Europe
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday April 13 2018, @03:51PM (7 children)
Based on this photo [legalcheek.com], I'd say no powdered wigs, which is mostly a British custom that is carried on in some of the Commonwealth countries to varying degrees.
This may come as a surprise to Americans, but the Brits aren't really representative of Europe as a whole. Heck, they recently decided they would really rather not be a part of Europe.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday April 13 2018, @03:55PM (2 children)
I wonder where this idea of the red robed judges come from, it seems the standard otherwise is black robes. Is that a french/spanish/german thing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @04:44PM
Nobody expects the red robed judges!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday April 13 2018, @04:44PM
Well it is the same in France, but might be a much wider tradition throughout Europe.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Friday April 13 2018, @04:51PM (3 children)
Er, no. Europe is a continent and the geographical location of both Europe and the UK will remain unchanged. The UK will still be in Europe. Europe has been Europe for a very long time. Unless the tectonic plates suddenly start to accelerate their movement it will be around for quite a bit longer yet.
However, the UK has decided to leave the European Union which is a more federal approach to government, business, legal matters and financial management among other things. This is the bit in which the UK no longer wishes to take part.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @04:58PM
Is this diagram still helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supranational_European_Bodies.png [wikipedia.org] ?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday April 13 2018, @05:09PM (1 child)
The Brits have frequently used those 20 miles of ocean between them and France to say "No, we're something different than the rest of the land in our area. You continentals do your thing, we'll do ours." They even do it in fiction, on a regular basis: Orwell made Britain part of the US-based Oceania rather than the Russian-based Eurasia, George R.R. Martin made Britain into Westeros, a very different place from the rest of the world known as Essos, etc.
That's in large part because many of the continental boundaries are pretty arbitrary. For example, the line between Europe and Asia, do you put Indonesia with Asia or Australia, and how are all the Pacific Islands classified?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday April 13 2018, @05:36PM
Every nation is different - they each have their own history and therefore culture, traditions and way of life. The UK wants to keep its laws, traditions and way of life and doesn't see the need to have the permission of 27 other countries before they can kick a convicted terrorist out of the country, or have to accept a quota of immigrants based on figures chosen by another government. Whether their choice proves to be a good one in the long term is something that we will have to wait and see. But it does not equate to ceasing to be a part of Europe.