Court backs Irish regulator on Facebook data transfers inquiry
Out-Law News | 20 May 2021 | 4:36 pm | 2 min. read
The High Court in Ireland has dismissed a legal challenge brought by Facebook over plans outlined by the country’s data protection authority to open an investigation into the company’s arrangements for transferring personal data from the EU to the US.
Facebook had challenged the Data Protection Commission’s (DPC’s) draft decision to commence the inquiry and the procedures it had followed.
The High Court’s judgment, issued on 14 May, comes after the EU’s highest court had earlier become involved in the case. The Irish High Court in Ireland had previously referred several questions concerning the interpretation of EU law to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) for its ruling. Those questions were focused around the adequacy of data protection provided by legal tools many businesses rely on for transferring personal data outside of the European E
| UPDATED: 15:43, Wed, Jan 13, 2021
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News concerning WhatsApp’s update regarding data-sharing procedures with Facebook has left some of the platform s users a little worried. There is a wide-spread perception the February 8 update will require an exchange of potentially sensitive data between WhatsApp and Facebook.
Facebook UK users will lose EU privacy protections in 2021. (JPI Media) Facebook will switch all United Kingdom account holders into user agreements with the firm s corporate headquarters in California, steering them clear of EU privacy laws. The current relationship with Facebook s Irish unit will end next year as the UK leaves the European Union (EU) at the end of the Brexit transition period. Facebook has said that the move will not change the privacy controls of UK users, or the services they are offered. Changes after Brexit UK users are currently governed by agreements with Facebook’s headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, but the legal relationship will change after the Brexit transition period comes to an end at the end of this year.
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Speaking to The Verge, a Facebook representative said most of these features will return very soon .
However, it is not clear on the exact timeline for when these features could return to both the Instagram and Facebook Messenger apps.
Facebook has been disabling these features in Instagram and Messenger due to the implementation of the 2002 Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. This EU directive has strict rules on data usage for communication services that operate in EU countries.
The news comes as earlier this week Facebook announced that they would be moving UK users onto new agreements with its Californian headquarters after the Brexit transition period ends.
Wednesday, 16 Dec 2020 09:02 AM MYT
Facebook is making the change partly because the EU privacy regime is among the world’s strictest, according to people familiar with the company. The EU rules give granular control to users over data about them. Reuters pic
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SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 16 Facebook Inc will shift all its users in the United Kingdom into user agreements with the corporate headquarters in California, moving them out of their current relationship with Facebook’s Irish unit and out of reach of Europe’s privacy laws.