Data Transfer Pact Between U.S. and Europe Is Ruled Invalid

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/technology/european-union-us-data-collection.html?_r=0

Data Transfer Pact Between U.S. and Europe Is Ruled Invalid
By MARK SCOTTOCT. 6, 2015

Europe’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that a widely used international agreement for moving people’s digital data between the European Union and the United States was invalid.

The decision, by the European Court of Justice, throws into doubt how global technology giants like Facebook and Google can collect, manage and analyze online information from their millions of users in the 28-member bloc. The court decreed that the data-transfer agreement was invalid as of Tuesday’s ruling.

The court is the highest legal authority in the European Union, and its decision cannot be appealed. It was not clear how companies would be able to immediately comply with the ruling.

In its ruling, the court said that the data-sharing agreement allowed American government authorities to gain routine access to Europeans’ online information. Such access infringes on Europeans’ rights to privacy established under the region’s tough data protection rules, the court said.