According to a Wall Street Journal report, an attempt by Facebook to block European Union privacy regulations – created by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) – has been dismissed by Ireland’s High Court.
The IDPC created the aforementioned regulation to interrupt the flow of data from the EU to the US.
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Facebook who appealed the order in part claimed that there is not enough time for it to respond to the IDPC and other privacy regulators from EU quickly changing policies.
The social media giant also told The Verge the IDPC’s privacy order “would have damaging consequences for the European economy.” Irish officials clearly didn’t share the same concerns.
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The new privacy order was originally created by the IDPC because Facebook and other international companies most times store data of EU residents on US servers. And the commission says this potentially expose the EU residents to additional surveillance.
As it stands, if EU regulators decide to side with the IDPC, it would mark the first major action against Privacy Shield, the protocol that allows that data sharing to happen.
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However, the commission still needs to submit final draft order to EU privacy regulators. But if it’s approved, it could have a widespread impact on all companies doing trans-Atlantic business online.
From the report on the Journal, the order could force Facebook to silo the information it collects from users in the EU or stop serving those countries altogether.
