EU MPs Investigating US Info Snooping To See If It Violates EU Privacy Laws
from the whoops dept
Via Slashdot, we learn that a group of European MPs are apparently asking the European Commission to determine if the US government violated EU privacy rules with its attempt to get info from Twitter on various Wikileaks associates. We had already noted that Icelandic officials were upset with the US, since one of the accounts under investigation was an Icelandic Member of Parliament.Of course, I have to say that as troubling as the US government's investigation appears to be, this particular response seems a little silly. The request for information was to a US company for info on US servers. That European users were involved really shouldn't much matter. Now, there is a somewhat silly "safe harbor" system that the Commerce Department has set up for American companies to get around the fact that the EU Privacy Directive forbids the transfer of personal info from Europeans to non-EU countries unless they have similar privacy laws (the US does not). However, I don't think the safe harbor would apply here either. This seems more like political grandstanding by some EU politicians against the US. I agree that there are problems with the investigation, but worrying about the EU privacy directive seems like a bit of a stretch.
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Filed Under: eu, privacy, wikileaks
Companies: twitter, wikileaks
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If the situation were reversed, the US would be crying foul.
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It is more smoke and mirrors to distract the public.
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Doesn't seem like a stretch to me about the EU privacy directive, to be blunt.... not ALL of Twitter's servers are based in the United States, or am I wrong on that?
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When they (the US government) or their corporations are the victims?
I don't know...I figure they have to care about it once in a while when it suits them.
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> live IS a consideration
Please cite the law-- title and section-- that mandates what you claim.
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If they keep pushing those things governments will step up and downright forbid American companies from being used by their population.
The problem?
If companies cannot assure that they can respect the laws inside those countries, those governments will take steps to negate them market, first and foremost because it reduces competition for them and they see that as good just ask IP apologist anywhere and second because no country in the world wants to give information about its citizens to others let alone allow that be used to do something that could potentially harm them in some way that they didn't foresee.
American tech companies could find themselves in a very dark place if the American government doesn't get their act together, people all over the world are just etching for an excuse to exclude somebody.
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> those countries
What happens if the law in Country A conflicts with the law in Country B? Which law does the US have to respect? Which law is the US company supposed to follow?
There are almost 200 countries in the world and many of them, like the US have multiple jurisdictions in their legal systems. The idea that I should have to become an expert on every legal regime worldwide, from Iran to China to Cote d'Ivoire, merely because I put up a website is ridiculous.
I obey the law where I live. Period. It's all that's required of me.
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Caugh Caught
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Hmm!
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Potentially this could wreck a lot of information sharing between the EU and the US.
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Oh wait, they're all CIA -sanctioned, 'cause it's un-Amerrican otherwise.[/sarc]
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