A proposal by the Irish privacy regulator to block Meta’s use of standard clauses for sending users ‘ personal data to the United States seems to be being pushed to the long run. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said in a statement to Politico that other European privacy regulators had raised objections.
The DPC announced in July that it was restricting Meta’s use of standard clauses for this purpose. This decision followed a ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2020 that data transfers between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) are associated with high risks. This data could be exposed to surveillance by the US government.
However, the DPC’s decision has yet to be approved by other privacy regulators from EU member states. The fact that the Irish regulator is looking into the matter is due to the fact that Meta’s European headquarters are located in Ireland. However, a spokesman for the DPC reports to Politico that objections have been received from several European privacy regulators.
The objections may significantly delay the execution of the decision of the DPC. For example, addressing the objections can take months. Also, Politico points out that in the majority of decisions against Big Tech companies in which objections have been received, the DPC has failed to reach agreement. In that case, a dispute mechanism comes into effect, which involves the European Data Protection Board in the case. This can again delay the process by at least a month.
Facebook and Instagram delay is good news for Meta, which previously threatened to temporarily close Facebook and Instagram in the EU due to the DPC’s decision. The EU is also working on a new data transfer treaty between the EU and the US.
