Skip to main content

Privacy Shield meets its first major legal challenge in Europe

Privacy Shield, the data transfer agreement between the United States and the European Union, is facing its first major legal challenge, which argues it does not provide adequate privacy protections.

Irish privacy advocates Digital Rights Ireland is taking legal action in the European Court of Justice’s General Court, less than two months after Privacy Shield was officially put in place.

Recommended Videos

Digital Rights Ireland has not commented to the action but Reuters reports that, according to a General Court spokesperson, the group is seeking the annulment of the agreement. However, we shouldn’t expect any major changes to Privacy Shield yet, as it will be at least a year before a decision is made.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said it was aware of the challenge being filed. He declined to comment further on ongoing legal action but defended Privacy Shield.

“As we have said from the beginning, the Commission is convinced that the Privacy Shield will live up to the requirements set out by the European Court of Justice which has been the basis for the negotiations.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce, which was involved in negotiating the deal, also defended it as having “critical privacy protections”.

Privacy Shield was first developed earlier this year as a replacement for Safe Harbor, the original data transfer agreement that was struck down last year by the European Court of Justice for failing to provide EU citizens with safeguards from U.S. mass surveillance.

Critics of Privacy Shield have said that the new agreement is not much different. Max Schrems, the Austrian lawyer that led the action against Safe Harbor, stated that the new mechanism would not stand up to legal scrutiny.

Digital Rights Ireland is taking advantage of a legal note that allows anyone to challenge the validity of an EU act within two months of it passing.

Jonathan Keane
Jonathan is a freelance technology journalist living in Dublin, Ireland. He's previously written for publications and sites…
Watch these AI humanoid robots play soccer like Mbappé … sort of
Humanoid robots playing soccer.

Watching these humanoid robots battle it out on the soccer field, you quickly realize that Kylian Mbappé and his fellow professionals really have little to worry about. At least, for now.

The footage (top) was captured last week in Beijing at the RoBoLeague World Robot Soccer League, China's first-ever three-on-three humanoid robot soccer league.

Read more
The robot takeover comes another step closer — at Amazon
An Amazon robot working inside one of the company's warehouses.

Amazon is close to having more robots operating inside its warehouses than humans after the e-commerce giant announced this week that it now has more than a million robots working at its facilities around the world.

Over the years, Amazon has spent billions of dollars on the development and deployment of warehouse-based robots, which handle an array of tasks once performed by human workers.

Read more
This Lenovo ThinkPad laptop is over $1,400 off — hurry while stocks last!
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 Intel laptop on a white background.

Now's an excellent time to take advantage of laptop deals from Lenovo, which has slashed the prices of a wide range of devices for its Black Friday in July sale. Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops are up to 45% off, and here's one of the most interesting offers available with such a discount — the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 at $1,440 off its estimated value of $3,199, so you'll only have to pay $1,759. That's an excellent price for this fantastic productivity tool, but you're going to have to push forward with your purchase as soon as possible because stocks may run out at any moment.

BUY NOW

Read more