EU-U.S Data Transfers By Meta Owned Facebook And Instagram At Risk

Data transfers by Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram between the European Union and the United States could be halted in Ireland as soon as May this year. 

In 2020 Europe's highest court ruled that an EU to U.S. data transfer pact was invalid due to concerns that U.S. government surveillance may not respect the privacy rights of EU citizens. 

That prompted Ireland's Data Protection Commission (or DPC), Meta's lead regulator in Europe, to issue a provisional order that the mechanism Facebook and Instagram uses to transfer data from European Union users to the United States cannot in practice be used. 

The Irish DPC is Meta’s lead regulator in Europe so it has a European wide consequence. 

The order, which does not apply to WhatsApp or to similar data flows at Meta's large rivals, was frozen following a legal challenge but resumed last May when the Irish High Court dismissed Meta's claims. Meta has warned a stoppage will likely leave it unable to offer significant services such as Facebook and Instagram in Europe without a new transatlantic data transfer framework. 

- CyberBeat