European Court of Justice issues groundbreaking ruling
The ruling by the European Court of Justice on July 16, 2020, which declared the Privacy Shield Agreement 2016/1250 between the EU and the US invalid, dramatically worsened the situation for European website providers. The Privacy Shield was supposed to ensure that European citizens' data is just as secure in the USA as it is in Europe. "This is not the case", according to the Court.Here is the full press release. This is because anyone who relies on companies based in the USA such as YouTube, Facebook and YouTube for the operation and, above all, the use of content, e.g. by embedding videos, and uses them on their websites without individual consent is liable to prosecution.
The Privacy Shield Agreement undermined the European Data Protection Regulation
When the user clicks on embedded content, the usage data is automatically transferred to the USA and processed there. However, the data protection laws there are very lax and the legislation there allows the authorities to spy on their citizens virtually on demand. This effectively undermines European data protection regulations. They would therefore be useless.
Severe fines are now being imposed
The frontrunner with the highest fine is META (previously: Facebook). They were fined 5 billion euros for their offenses. The fines amount to 4% of turnover or 20 million euros, whichever is higher.
Which US providers are affected?
MapBox (provides OpenStreetMap)
The consequences
The Privacy Shield now does not protect data transfers from the EU to other European countries. American companies in particular are therefore no longer legitimized by the Privacy Shield. American internet companies in particular are affected, as are all users of solutions from the following providers (selection):
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Facebook (WhatsApp and Instagram)
- Apple
- Microsoft
- Zoom
- Adobe
- Fonts.com (Fast Fonts)
- OpenStreetMap (via OpenStreetMap Foundation, based in the UK - no longer part of the EU after Brexit )
- MapBox (provided by OpenStreetMap)
As long as these providers process data in America or another unsafe third country, the Privacy Shield no longer guarantees compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation in accordance with the ECJ ruling in Case C-311/18.
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