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The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in July
that the data arrangement set up in 2016, called Privacy Shield,
was invalid under Europe's privacy framework because of concerns
about U.S. surveillance.
The ruling effectively ends the privileged access that U.S.
companies such as Facebook had to personal data from Europe. It
puts the country on a similar footing to other nations outside
the EU, meaning data transfers are likely to face closer
scrutiny.
The survey, conducted by Schrems' digital rights group NOYB -
short for None of Your Business - covered 33 companies. Most
were American, but some were based in the EU and Britain.
Exercising the right of customers to ask companies how their
data is handled under the EU's General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), the survey drew a mixed bag of responses -
some firms did not respond and others gave misleading answers.
"The responses ranged from detailed explanations, to admissions
that these companies have no clue what is happening, to
shockingly aggressive denials of the law,” said Schrems.
NOYB said that rental platform AirBnB, streaming service Netflix
and Facebook chat app WhatsApp didn't reply, while other
companies referred to privacy policies that did not address the
questions asked.
Business collaboration platform Slack said it would not
"voluntarily" pass on user data to the U.S. authorities, failing
to address concerns that Washington has the legal power to
conduct targeted surveillance of non-U.S. citizens overseas.
“Overall, we were astonished by how many companies were unable
to provide little more than a boilerplate answer," said Schrems.
"The companies that did provide answers largely are simply not
complying with the CJEU judgment. It seems that most of the
industry still does not have a plan as to how to move forward.”
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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