Facebook EU data transfer ban is likely. The social media giant has failed to evade a privacy decision.
This decision could restrict Facebook from sending information about European users to the United States. Ireland’s data regulator will be resuming a probe that can ban Facebook EU data transferability, The Wall Street Journal reports.
On Friday, the high court raised the prospect of termination that Facebook claims would wreak havoc on its business.
The case is an outcome of EU concerns over American government surveillance. The EU believes, US government surveillance can’t protect the privacy of EU citizens.
It believes, the privacy breach can take place while transferring personal data to the United States for commercial use.
Ireland’s High Court dismisses Facebook’s complains
In August, Ireland’s DPC (Data Protection Commissioner), along with Facebook’s top regulator in the EU launched an inquiry. Aside from that, it issued a provisional order.
Furthermore, the order states that the main mechanism that helps Facebook to transfer EU user data to America “cannot in practice be used.”
According to Facebook’s first appeal, the Commission and the European Union’s other privacy regulators didn’t give the company enough time to respond.
Moreover, the IDPC’s privacy order would lead to destructive consequences for the European economy, Facebook told The Verge.
However, Irish officials didn’t seem concerned about the decision affecting the European economy. The privacy order was originally created to restrict Facebook and other international companies from storing data of EU residents on US servers.
In a 200 pages judgment, Justice David Barniville denied the reliefs sought by the FBI (Facebook Ireland) and also dismissed the claims made by it in the proceedings..
Barniville pointed out that the FBI failed to establish any basis for challenging the DPC decision, the PDD, or the procedures for the inquiry used by the DPC.
The decision did not instantly block data flows. However, Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems believes the decision made it inevitable.
Impact of Facebook EU data transfer ban
EU regulators siding with the IDPC would lead to the first major action against Privacy Shield. The protocol that enables data sharing would be affected too.
The commission has not yet submitted a final draft of its order to EU privacy regulators. However, it is highly likely to be approved.
As a result, there would be a widespread impact on companies involved in trans-Atlantic business online.
As stated in the journal, the order could compel Facebook to isolate information of EU users. Moreover, it could force the company to stop serving those countries completely.