If the EU Commission deems a non-EU state to be a ‘safe harbour’ for the purposes of data processing, then personal data about EU citizens can be sent to companies in that non-EU state. This is not new. For example, in 2000 the EU Commission had decided that the USA was a ‘safe harbour’. However, in 2013 Edward Snowden made a series of revelations concerning the USA’s blanket interception of Internet and telecoms systems. These revelations have generated a question of EU law. Namely, can an EU Member State’s national data protection regulator now disregard the EU Commission’s finding that the USA is a ‘safe harbour’, and do so on the basis that the USA’s laws and practices do not adequately protect and respect an EU citizen’s EU Charter rights to privacy and data protection?
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Case C-291/12, Michael Schwarz – No fingerprints? No passport. An invalid EC Regulation?
Is the EU’s biometric data Regulation 2252/2004 invalid because it is a disproportionate infringement of a person’s fundamental rights to privacy and data processing?
Continue readingCase C-293/12, Digital Rights Ireland – telecoms, privacy and freedom of expression
Does the restriction on the use of a mobile telephone arising from the data retention Directive 2006/24 contravene the EU Charter’s rights to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression?
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