"The court’s decision regarding data transfer between European and US companies highlights the necessity of major changes in the future," de Maiziere said, pointing to a need for increasingly robust transatlantic data transfer protocols.
The EU-US Safe Harbor agreement established logistics for exchange of data for commercial purposes between companies, including large-scale entities like Google and Facebook. According to CJEU Advocate General Yves Bot, the US law allows the wide-ranging collection of EU citizen personal data without regulation or legislative oversight.
Europeans are particularly concerned about personal data protection after former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden released in 2013 over 200,000 documents revealing that the agency was conducting mass surveillance programs, targeting people in the United States and globally.
