Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part VII: Lipstick on a Pig…

Previous parts:



Safe Harbour pig
The Privacy Shield was derided by its critics as "lipstick on a pig"



Summary: The Schrems II judgment has significant implications for "cloud computing" services

As we saw in the last part, following the invalidation of the Safe Harbour by the CJEU in its "Schrems I" judgment a revised framework for regulating transatlantic exchanges of personal data was pulled out of the hat in the form of the Privacy Shield.



From its very inception the robustness of this arrangement was questioned and it was derided by its critics as "lipstick on a pig".

The hurried manner in which the Privacy Shield was cobbled together meant that it always smacked of being a flaky and legally unsound last minute political compromise between the EU and the Obama Administration.

In the eyes of its critics it was nothing more than a comfort blanket to calm post-NSA revelations nerves among non-US cloud services buyers, rather than a legally sound framework to protect data from intrusive examination by American intelligence services.

"The hurried manner in which the Privacy Shield was cobbled together meant that it always smacked of being a flaky and legally unsound last minute political compromise between the EU and the Obama Administration."The first signs that the revised arrangement might not last very long came in January 2017 during the early days of the Trump Administration when the incoming POTUS signed off on a new Executive Order on "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the U.S."

Among other elements, this Executive Order directed US government agencies to “ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information".

This prompted certain commentators, such as MEP Jan-Philipp Albrecht, to express concerns about the tenability of the Privacy Shield and to call for its suspension pending clarification of the legal implications of Trump's Executive Order.

The European Commission was quick to dismiss these concerns.

Others who remained sceptical about the tenability of the Privacy Shield arrangement confidently - and accurately - predicted that its days were numbered.

"The Schrems II judgment has significant implications for "cloud computing" services."The final nail in the coffin came in 16 July 2020 when the CJEU delivered its judgment in the case of Facebook Ireland Ltd. v. Maximillian Schrems – known as "Schrems II" – which not only invalidated the Privacy Shield agreement but also put other data transfer mechanisms into significant doubt.

The CJEU found that due to the possibility of access to personal data of EU citizens by US authorities, the Privacy Shield infringed EU data protection regulations because it did not provide adequate GDPR‑compliant protection of personal data.

Privacy Shield
The Schrems II judgment has significant implications for "cloud computing" services



The Schrems II judgment has significant implications for "cloud computing" services.

Private companies and public sector bodies have increasingly started to make use of cloud services in recent years and this trend is likely to continue in future. The majority of cloud services are provided by vendors located in the US. The servers for the purchased services are partly located in the US, partly in Europe.

And this is where it gets interesting.

Even if a server is located in the EU, US authorities may access the stored data. This access is possible because of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) 702 and the EO (Executive Order) 12.333 which apply to all Electronic Communication Service Providers headquartered in the US.

"The majority of cloud services are provided by vendors located in the US. The servers for the purchased services are partly located in the US, partly in Europe."Merely relocating the data to an EU-based region in these clouds is not sufficient, because the problem is not geographical in nature.

The decisive issue here is that US-owned cloud vendors are subject to US jurisdiction and US legislation can be used to them to hand out customer data to the US government, even if the servers storing that data happen to be located on foreign soil.

USA spying on EU
Even if a server is located in the EU, US authorities may access the stored data via FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) 702 and the EO (Executive Order) 12.333 which apply to all Electronic Communication Service Providers headquartered in the US.



In essence, the Schrems II judgment means that US-based cloud providers such as Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure cannot be used to store data about European citizens in a GDPR-compliant manner.

In December 2020 it was reported that the Swedish data protection authority had imposed the first GDPR-based fine for lack of adequate protection of sensitive data stored in a US‑based cloud platform after the Schrems II decision.

"In December 2020 it was reported that the Swedish data protection authority had imposed the first GDPR-based fine for lack of adequate protection of sensitive data stored in a US‑based cloud platform after the Schrems II decision."In that case the UmeÃ¥ University in Sweden was fined SEK 550,000 (approx. € 54,000) because it was found to have processed special categories of personal data concerning sexual life and health using storage in a cloud service of a US-based provider, without sufficiently protecting the relevant data.

The Swedish data protection authority referred to the Schrems II judgment and took the stance that per se a data transfer to the US triggers a high risk for personal data because data subjects are limited in protecting and enforcing their privacy rights.

In the next part we take a further look at the fallout from Schrems II in Europe and how the judgment has given new impetus to the discussion about European "data sovereignty".

Recent Techrights' Posts

Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
 
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025