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Data protection advocate Schrems: Facebook ignores ECJ ruling

“It seems questionable whether Facebook has any strategy – other than total denial of the law,” said Schrems in a press release on Monday. The social media company denies that it followed the rules, a spokesman for the Facebook parent company Meta emphasized in response to an APA request.

According to Schrems, Facebook holds US law on a par with European data protection law. However, this is a direct contradiction to the ECJ ruling. The procedure is based on an allegedly confidential 86-page document called “Transfer Impact Assessment”, as Schrems reported. Facebook should have stopped the data transmission to the USA immediately after the ECJ had declared it illegal twice.

The social media company contradicts the presentation of the representation. “Like other companies, we followed the rules and relied on international transmission mechanisms to transfer data in a secure manner,” a spokesman for Facebook parent Meta told the APA. “Companies need clear, global rules that are underpinned by a strong rule of law to protect transatlantic data traffic over the long term.”

Data protection advocate Schrems sees it differently. Even almost a year and a half after the second ECJ ruling, the social network did not take any steps to restrict its data transfers. As a result of the newly introduced standard contractual clauses (SCC), Facebook has now come to the conclusion that the ECJ ruling does not apply to the company and that the transmission of user data to the USA can continue as before.

“Facebook has been ignoring EU law for 8.5 years now. The documents now published show that Facebook simply says that the ECJ is wrong,” said Schrems. It is an unbelievable ignorance of the rule of law that remains without consequences in Ireland.

Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland. It is therefore up to the Irish data protection authority DPC to prosecute the company’s violations of EU regulations. The case of the cooperation between Facebook and US authorities has been pending at the Irish DPC since 2013. A first decision is still not in sight.

In October 2015, at Schrems’ instigation, the ECJ overturned the EU-US data protection agreement “Safe Harbor”. Last summer, Schrems brought down the successor regulation “Privacy Shield” before the ECJ. “Facebook completely ignores the ECJ, despite two explicit judgments. The Irish data protection authority is watching,” said Schrems.

Source: Nachrichten

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