A major data-sharing deal between the EU and US is 'invalid' given the spying revelations in the Edward Snowden scandal, the top EU court's main legal advisor said today in a case brought against Facebook.
The case stems from a complaint against Facebook lodged at Ireland's data protection authority by Austrian right-to-privacy activist and law student Max Schrems.
The complaint focused on a landmark deal reached by the European Commission with Washington 15 years ago that allows thousands of businesses operating in the EU to send the private data of Europeans to servers in the US.
That 2000 data sharing deal, known as Safe Harbour, "is invalid", said the advocate general's recommendation.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees compliance of privacy law in Ireland, had argued that Safe Harbour sufficiently protected Europeans.
But in a strong-worded opinion, the court's advisor Yves Bot singled out the US government for the "large scale" hoarding of European citizens private data.
Accordingly, Bot said EU member states such as Ireland have the power to probe and even suspend the transfer of information with the United States when the privacy of European citizens is undermined.
The case centred on Ireland where major US web giants including Facebook and Apple have set up headquarters to take advantage of tax laws.
The case now goes to the court for a final ruling in about six months, but judges rarely contradict the findings of their legal advisor.
Schrems, who says he remains a fan of Facebook, welcomed the opinion in a tweet.
