Positive ECJ Judgement Could Prove Difficult for Irish Government and DPC

This news has been published by the Celtic League:

Positive ECJ Judgement Could Prove Difficult for Irish Government and DPC

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

The Irish government could find itself in the ‘hot seat’ if a case before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) finds in favour of the plaintiff.

An Austrian student, Max Schrems, took a complaint to the Irish High Court about the transfer of data by Facebook to the United States.

His action came in the wake of revelations by whistleblower US Intelligence Operative Edward Snowden that data companies such as Facebook had conspired with the US National Security Agency to ‘harvest’ the data of internet users.

The case involves Ireland because of the Facebook subsidiary based there.

There is a report on the case here:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0324/689256-facebook-case/

Interestingly in the first instance Shrems appears to have taken the issue up with Ireland’s Data Commissioner who dismissed his concerns.

Readers of Celtic News will recall that the Irish data Commissioner was similarly unmoved by concerns about the UK MOD accessing data on potential British Army recruits from the Irish Republic (see link):

https://www.celticleague.net/news/irelandmod-access-to-irish-data-above-...

As indicated the ECJ judgement in the Schrems case will be extremely interesting. In will place the Irish government in the difficult position of having to take actions which may upset the United States and indeed multinationals such as Facebook.

Additionally a positive outcome for Schrems is likely to leave the Data Commissioner in Ireland with some difficult questions to answer.

J B Moffatt (Mr)

Director of Information
Celtic League

24/03/15

(Please note that replies to correspondence received by the League and posted on CL News are usually scanned hard copies. Obviously every effort is made to ensure the scanning process is accurate but sometimes errors do occur)

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