Tag: PRISM

Tomorrow, the EU Court of Justice will determine whether the national Data Protection authority can conduct an independent assessment of a decision in the so-called Schrems case, which deals with Facebook’s transfer of user data between its subsidiary in Ireland and the parent company in the United States.

Today Yves Bot, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), released his opinion in the EU-US Safe Harbor case, which addresses a controversial transatlantic data sharing agreement. Advocate General Bot recommends that the Court rule to recognise the duty of national data protection authorities to conduct independent assessment of the Safe Harbor in light of evidence of abuses brought by the Snowden’s revelations. Based on a large number of hearings, AG Bot considers European Commission’s earlier decision, holding that the protection of personal data in the United States is adequate, to be invalid.

Access is currently working with a coalition of US and international human rights organizations to demand that the US Congress investigate and halt the NSA’s pervasive surveillance program PRISM, which threatens the privacy rights of millions of internet users. Until this rights-abusing surveillance system is dismantled, there are some basic ways that you can protect the content of your internet communications from surveillance.