EU Data Protection: When Your Organization's Lifeblood becomes Poisonous

Damian Hallmark

A breaking development in the EU is creating ripples that have the potential to create a global tsunami. A European Court of Justice opinion has implications that highlight the pending impact for any global organization processing EU personal information outside of the EU.

A privacy campaigner has scored a legal victory that could bolster his attempts to prevent Facebook from being able to pass EU citizens' data to the US authorities in what the campaigner suggests could have far-reaching consequences. The opinion issued by the European Court of Justice says that current data-sharing rules between the 28-nation bloc and the US are "invalid." This decision could affect other tech firms' abilities to send Europeans' information to US data centres.