If the European Court of Justice (ECJ) follows the Advocate General's opinion, it seems that Facebook, Amazon and other companies holding data relating to Europeans in the US would need to set up separate databases in Europe for European customers.
Private life
After the revelations of Edward Snowden about US surveillence practices, Mr Schrems became concerned about the holding of his Facebook data in the US. His data was being held under the 'Safe Harbour' rules, but he argued that it was still not safe enough and the Advocate General appears to agree. In his decision, he said: 'The Advocate General considers … that the access enjoyed by the United States intelligence services to the transferred data constitutes an interference with the right to respect for private life and the right to protection of personal data, which are guaranteed by the Charter.'
Essay on Facebook
Mr Schrems had become familiar with the issues while studying at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley and wrote an essay on Facebook's understanding of EU privacy rules. He is now a privacy activist. Source: Forbes
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