US government bids to join ‘potentially significant’ data case

The US government wants to be joined to legal proceedings here involving issues of huge significance for privacy rights of EU citizens, arising from the internet transfer of their personal data to the US.

In the proceedings, the Data Protection Commissioner has reached a preliminary view, subject to considering any further submissions, that there are “well-founded” claims the personal data privacy rights of EU citizens are being breached arising from transfer of their personal data to the US where it might be accessed and processed by US state agencies for national security purposes in a manner incompatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

Commissioner Helen Dixon now wants the Commercial Court to refer key issues for determination by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) before her office makes a final decision on the complaint by Austrian student Max Schrems alleging breach of his data protection rights by Facebook Ireland. The company denies any breach of Irish or EU law.