Ireland Challenges Facebook in Threat to Cross-Border Data Pact

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is in hot water in Ireland, as their privacy watchdog has launched a bid to refer Facebook’s data transfer mechanism to the European Union’s top court in a landmark case that could put the shifting of data across the Atlantic under renewed legal threat. The move is the latest challenge to the various methods by which large tech firms such as Google and Apple move personal data of EU citizens back to the United States.
As quoted in the press release:

The issue of data privacy came to the fore after revelations in 2013 from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. surveillance caused political outrage in Europe and stoked mistrust of large technology companies and an overhaul in the way businesses can move personal data – from human resources information to people’s browsing histories – so as to protect Europeans’ information against U.S. surveillance.
Ireland’s data protection commissioner, who has jurisdiction over Facebook as its European headquarters are in Dublin, wants The Court of Justice of the European Union to determine the validity of Facebook’s “model contracts” – common legal arrangements used by thousands of firms to transfer personal data outside the 28-nation bloc.

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