Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part VI: A Not-so-safe Harbour

Previous parts:



Safe Harbour
Thanks to the efforts of Max Schrems, the Safe Harbour Agreement was invalidated in October 2015



Summary: Examining the so-called 'Safe Harbour' Agreement, which was neither safe nor a harbour

To ensure that the personal data of European citizens was protected in a manner complaint with EU data protection regulations after it had been transferred to the USA, deals such as the Safe Harbour Agreement and the EU-US Privacy Shield were drafted and implemented to address the shortcomings of nationwide data protection in the USA.



As it turned out, these agreements did not last very long. The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) overturned them both because in practice they did not live up to the agreed data protection standards.

These CJEU rulings were a slap in the face for the politicians in the European Parliament who had rubber-stamped the agreements despite warnings from data protection advocates.

The CJEU judgements also gave a clear indication that future agreements of this kind must deliver genuine data protection if they are to be upheld.

"On top of this, there is also the concern and suspicion that commercially lucrative data from the EU can (and will) be tapped on the American side."This effectively creates an impasse because US providers are subject to American legislation such as the PATRIOT Act, the USA FREEDOM Act, and the CLOUD Act, which are designed to ensure that US authorities and intelligence agencies have access to personal data of EU citizens.

On top of this, there is also the concern and suspicion that commercially lucrative data from the EU can (and will) be tapped on the American side.

However, in July 2000, in the context of an examination of the adequacy of the protection of personal data transferred to other countries, the European Commission took the position that the "Safe Harbour" principles developed by the US were in compliance with Article 25 of the EU Data Protection Directive 95/56/EC and would provide "adequate protection" for the transfer of personal information from the EU to the US.

The European Commission thus gave approval for transfers of personal data to the US by means of executive decision no. 2000/520/EC, the so-called "Safe Harbour decision".

However, in 2013 this decision was called into question by the Snowden revelations.

The game was over on 6 October 2015 when the CJEU delivered its judgment in the case of Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner.

"...in 2013 this decision was called into question by the Snowden revelations."In this judgment the Court invalidated the European Commission's Safe Harbour Decision, because "legislation permitting the public authorities to have access on a generalised basis to the content of electronic communications must be regarded as compromising the essence of the fundamental right to respect for private life".

Maximillian Schrems
Max Schrems in front of the office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner in Dublin



This landmark judgment of the CJEU in data protection matters which is colloquially known as "Schrems I" was largely due to the efforts of one individual, the Austrian activist and author Maximilian "Max" Schrems who had initiated a legal action in his capacity as a Facebook user claiming that his Facebook data were insufficiently protected.

In essence Schrems argued that the Safe Harbor system would violate his fundamental right to privacy, data protection and the right to a fair trial under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The striking down of the Safe Harbour Decision by the CJEU resulted in further talks between the EU Commission and the Obama Administration aimed at establishing "a renewed and sound framework for transatlantic data flows".

The outcome of these talks was a revised framework for regulating transatlantic exchanges of personal data which became known as the EU-US Privacy Shield.

"...the Privacy Shield turned out to be rather porous and it was also struck down by the CJEU in July 2020 in the context of a further legal challenge mounted by Max Schrems."The European Commission approved the Privacy Shield on 12 July 2016 and it entered into effect the same day.

However as we shall see in the next part, the Privacy Shield turned out to be rather porous and it was also struck down by the CJEU in July 2020 in the context of a further legal challenge mounted by Max Schrems.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
 
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead
Happy Independence Day to Our American Readers
Maybe tomorrow will be a good opportunity to explain to American people - in terms of concepts, not brands - which tools respect their independence
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Linuxsecurity, and Google News Getting Even Worse (More Slopfarms Added Which Attack Linux With Bruce-Force SPAM)
Google News is part of the same problem
Links 03/07/2025: More Cuts and Cancellations at Microsoft Revealed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/07/2025: Favourite Child and Launching WikiGem
Links for the day
GNU/Linux is Replacing Microsoft Windows. But We Need to Eradicate Microsoft, It's a Hub of Crime.
I have been writing about Microsoft since the 1990s when I was in school
Mystery Surrounding the PCLinuxOS Sites and PCLinuxOS Magazine
Let's hope this isn't something major
People and Companies Do Learn Some Lessons From Their Mistakes (Stubborn Ones Don't)
Brett Wilson LLP is an example of one that would rather drown in mistakes
Links 03/07/2025: 'Hey Hi' Slop Ridiculed Some More and Microsoft's Layoffs Tally for 2025 Reaches About 29,000 in Just 6 Months (Almost 5,000 Per Month)
Links for the day
Microsoft Staff Harassing Women, Strangling Women, Telling Women to Kill Themselves and Worse? Not a Problem!
Two women have left Brett Wilson LLP
The Slopfarms Are Losing the Plot (and Google is Propping Up Rogue Sites)
Google is part of the attack on the Web, on information, and on technology
New BetaNews Realises There's No Potential or Future in Slopfarms, Prior Editor Wayne Williams is Back
They realise that slop (so-called "AI") cannot replace humans
Claims That Microsoft Looks for Staff That Works More and Gets Paid Less (or Can Only Code by Grabbing Other People's Code, Under the Guise of "AI")
People can form their own opinion
Richard Stallman Was Right About Reasons Not to Use Microsoft
last updated 2017
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 02, 2025
Gemini Links 03/07/2025: No to Cloudflare and Small Web July
Links for the day