Spies and internet giants are in the same business: surveillance. But we can stop them
October 11, 2015
Grazed from TheGuardian. Author: John Naughton.
On Tuesday, the European court of justice, Europe’s supreme court, lobbed a grenade into the cosy, quasi-monopolistic world of the giant American internet companies. It did so by declaring invalid a decision made by the European commission in 2000 that US companies complying with its “safe harbour privacy principles” would be allowed to transfer personal data from the EU to the US.
This judgment may not strike you as a big deal. You may also think that it has nothing to do with you. Wrong on both counts, but to see why, some background might be useful. The key thing to understand is that European and American views about the protection of personal data are radically different…
We Europeans are very hot on it, whereas our American friends are – how shall I put it? – more relaxed…
Read more from the source @ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/11/spies-internet-giants-surveillance-safe-harbour-ruling-edward-snowden