German executive Investigating Google, facebook

The German govt has unexpectedly announced plans to check out Google and fb for unlawful knowledge transfers. This decision method serious complications for the two American tech giants, in addition to a whole bunch of different tech companies that additionally operate in Germany.

in keeping with a record in Der Spiegel, Germany’s commissioner for information privateness and freedom of data, Johannes Caspar, made the decision to investigate fb and Google. His decision takes situation weeks after the eu fee basically dismantled the lengthy-standing “secure Harbor” agreement that allow foreign tech firms store knowledge on users within the European Union. As of press time, no successor agreement to protected Harbor exists and tech companies primarily based in the united states with European users don’t have any protocols to determine whether or not they are working legally or no longer.

In a commentary, Caspar mentioned that “any individual who needs to remain untouched by means of the legal and political implications of the judgement, should at some point believe storing private knowledge best on servers inside the European Union.” however, this transfer would mean huge financial and logistical complications for tech companies, as well as supply precedents to international governments equivalent to China’s and Russia’s that hope to strong-arm international corporations into storing information relating to their voters on their soil.

[via Ars Technica]