Google instructed to provide data to US intelligence services meaning that Google storing data in the US of EU citizens would be in breach of the European GDPR. The data of European citizens therefore can’t be sent across the Atlantic. This is in accordance with a new ruling by the Austrian Data Protection Authority. A ruling in one EU state means that the decision is implemented in all EU states.
The court case was August 14, 2020, and a Google user had been to an Austrian site about health issues. Google Analytics was used on this website, and Google got information about the person who used it. Based on this information, Google was able to figure out who he or she was. This is how it worked. On August 18, 2020, the person who used Google complained to the Austrian data protection authority with the help of the data protection group NOYB.
Under Article 44 of the GDPR, it was ruled that Google can’t provide enough protection for users’ data. This is a clear violation of European data protection rules.
Now, a court in Austria has ruled that this data transfer is illegal. As a result of the American CLOUD Act which authorizes US authorities to get personal data from Google, Facebook, and other US providers even when they’re not in the US, like in Europe is causing issues with GDPR.
Data protection group NOYB has had a lot of success with this ruling. If you work for a company in Europe, you should be concerned about how Silicon Valley tech companies responded to the end of Privacy Shield. As a European, you can no longer trust companies like Google that break European privacy laws and risk huge fines for their European business customers.
