The technology industry has been chewing over the implications of a ruling by the European Court of Justice that the current ‘safe harbour’ agreement between the EU and US is invalid.
But this is a specific safe harbour concerning data transfer between the regions: for example US companies like Facebook (which was involved in the case sparking this ruling) transferring data on their European users to the US.
It’s NOT anything to do with the European rules on safe harbour that music-industry rightsholders have criticised in relation to the notice-and-takedown policies of companies like YouTube and SoundCloud.
Even so, it’s big news: national data-protection authorities in Europe will now be reviewing what data US companies are transferring on their users “on the ground that that country does not afford an adequate level of protection of personal data”.
Facebook, Google, Apple and a whole swathe of other tech companies would be affected, including those running music services.
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