DECRYPTION
The European Court of Justice has ruled: in a judgment given Thursday morning, it considers that personal data is not as protected on the other side of the Atlantic as in Europe. The court therefore invalidated a crucial mechanism for transferring personal data from the European Union to the United States. This decision is very important for European internet users, especially those who use social networks.
The United States for their part said they were "deeply disappointed" by this decision, which, according to Washington, could weaken companies operating in the EU which transfer or have data hosted across the Atlantic, now plunged into a legal vagueness.
Why had the Court been brought?
It all starts with the procedure launched by a young Austrian, Max Schrems. This privacy activist has filed a complaint against Facebook. While the European Union has the most protective legislation in the world for personal data, Mark Zuckerberg's social network stores this information on its servers in the United States. Brussels had concluded with Washington an agreement supposed to protect us as well there. But for Max Schrems, there was a risk that our data would be sucked in by the FBI or the NSA, for example.
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"Supervisory authorities, like the NSA, have enormous power of access to data stored by American companies," recalls Martin Drago, a lawyer with the La Quadrature du Net association, who welcomes this judgment before d 'Europe 1. "This decision is a political appeal by the European Union to the United States to review and strengthen their protection of personal data."
How does the court motivate its decision?
The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that the EU-USA "Privacy Shield" agreement, used by 5,000 US companies, including giants like Google and Amazon, does not protect possible "interference with the fundamental rights of the persons whose data are transferred".
The Court considers that the American public authorities can currently access the data without this being limited to "what is strictly necessary". These current American regulations provide neither "guarantees for potentially targeted non-American persons", nor "rights enforceable against American authorities before the courts", continues European jurisdiction.
How did the European Union, the American authorities and Facebook react?
The European Commission must quickly find a new solution. Thursday noon, she promised to work to protect Europeans, but also so that data can continue to flow on both sides of the Atlantic. This is a new disavowal for Brussels, after the cancellation on Wednesday of its decision demanding that Apple reimburse 13 billion euros, previously considered as improper tax advantages.
For their part, the United States said it was "deeply disappointed" by this decision, which could weaken companies operating in the EU that transfer or host data across the Atlantic. Washington will continue to work with the European Commission, and is studying the court ruling in detail to understand all of the concrete effects, said Wilbur Ross, the US secretary of commerce. We "hope to be able to limit the negative consequences for the 7.1 trillion dollar transatlantic economic relationship which is vital for our respective citizens, businesses and government," added Wilbur Ross.
In a statement, Facebook promised to "ensure that (its) advertisers, customers and partners can continue to benefit from (its) services while preserving the security of their data". The personal data concerned (online behavior, geolocation, etc.) constitute the gold mine of the digital economy, in particular for the giants of the sector.