The Irish Data Protection Authority recently decided that telecom operator Meta cannot transfer Irish users’ data to the US, and a draft decision has been sent to European data protection regulatory authorities. The latter has one month to comment on.
It’s Tamas Coy, a journalist specializing in the IT news magazine HWSW For InfoRadio He said: It is not yet known how the Irish Data Protection Authority decided, because the decision has not been made public.
Nor has it been disclosed whether the data management practices Facebook has implemented so far are classified as illegal. According to the specialized journalist, it is also possible that Meta will withdraw from Europe, and therefore Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will also stop.
Although the company has previously warned about this several times, according to Tamás Koi, there is little chance of this happening, given that the data protection authorities of the EU member states could still make a different decision on the draft decision. At the same time, the parent company of Facebook can appeal the unfavorable decision through legal means.
It also likely won’t be that important in the coming months. Tamas Coy reported that the United States and the European Union announced in March that they had laid the foundations for a new Transatlantic Data Sharing Agreement.
Therefore, it is quite possible that by the time the legal process ends, there will already be a new data exchange agreement. According to Tamás Koi, Ireland is not interested in withdrawing Facebook either, as the company contributes a significant amount to the Irish budget through the tax it pays.
