Facebook, Google, US government, etc lobbying EU to accept horrible Privacy Shield deal

[Rachael]

Link to article
http://piratetimes.net/privacy-shield-the-american-lobbying-invasion/

PRIVACY SHIELD: THE AMERICAN LOBBYING INVASION

July 12, 2017 · by Rachael Tackett · in Pirate Topic

It is difficult to know the true extent to which American corporate
interests and the US government continue to lobby the European Union and
its member states on the US-EU Privacy Shield agreement. In March of
this year, public records requests about Privacy Shield were sent to
data protection authorities across the European Union. To date, the vast
majority of EU data protection authorities have failed to release public
records on Privacy Shield.
*_
_*Lobbying by American Corporate Interests

American corporations, such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and
Twitter, use the Privacy Shield framework as the legal basis to transfer
personal data from the European Union to the United States. Civil
society groups [1, 2, 3, 4] have criticized the Privacy Shield’s many
flaws and lack of basic protection for personal data. Even the EU’s own
parliament has been critical of the agreement. The Article 29 Working
Party, the group of EU data protection authorities, has also expressed
serious concern and doubt about Privacy Shield. Perhaps the most glaring
inadequacy of the Privacy Shield agreement is that it allows for NSA
mass surveillance, in violation of EU law.

The European Union has a voluntary lobbying register. Google, Microsoft,
BusinessEurope, and DigitalEurope are four of the top eight lobbying
organizations by number of meetings with EU officials, according to
Integrity Watch. The transparency register lists Google and Microsoft as
being members of BusinessEurope and DigitalEurope. The transparency
register also lists Google and Microsoft estimating their annual
spending on EU lobbying as between €4 and €5 million Euros each.
BusinessEurope lists its estimated annual spending on the low side of €4
million Euros, while DigitalEurope is spending approximately €1.9
million Euros a year.

There has been a massive lobbying campaign by American corporate
interests on Privacy Shield in the EU. In addition to spending on
lobbying, the transparency register also lists meetings between EU
officials and lobbyists. In January of 2016, a couple months after the
EU Court of Justice struck down Safe Harbor (the framework before
Privacy Shield), Microsoft met separately with EU Commission Vice
President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Vera Jourova on the issue.

American technology companies such as Adobe, Apple, Amazon. AT&T, Cisco,
Facebook (subsidiary in Ireland), General Electric, Google,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Symantec, and Yahoo! have lobbied EU officials on
the EU’s data protection standards. Several American financial services
companies, including Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Mastercard, have
also lobbied EU officials on data protection standards. Trade industry
groups representing American corporate interests have also partaken in
this lobbying effort. The American Chamber of Commerce, the Business
Software Alliance, BusinessEurope, and DigitalEurope are also listed as
meeting with and lobbying EU officials on Privacy Shield.

Since the EU’s transparency registry is completely voluntary and there
are few sanctions for violations, some meetings with EU officials and
additional spending on lobbying may have never been registered. The
American lobbying invasion may actually be much larger than the records
on the EU’s transparency register suggest.

US Embassy Gets Involved

The US government is also engaged in lobbying EU member states to accept
the Privacy Shield agreement. In January of 2016, the US embassy sent
the Danish data protection authority (Datatilsynet) an email warning
that legal uncertainty about personal data transfers from the EU to the
US could harm business. The US embassy goes on to state that the EU
should not solve the problem by hosting servers and storing data in the
EU. The email also rather comically insinuates a denial of some aspects
of NSA spying by stating, “The allegations underlying the Schrems case
about U.S. privacy law and intelligence practices were based on mistaken
assumptions and outdated information.” The Datatilsynet confirms that
there was a meeting in May 2016 between their office, the Danish
Ministry of Justice, the US embassy, and the US Department of Commerce
about the Privacy Shield agreement.

In January of last year, the US embassy sent an email thanking the
Slovenian data protection authority (IPRS) for meeting the week earlier.
Several days later, the US embassy sent IPRS and the Slovenian Ministry
of Justice a rather ominous email. The email warns, “It is imperative to
conclude a revised U.S.-EU Safe Harbor agreement now, or risk harm to
economic growth and job creation on both sides of the Atlantic, as well
as damage to the broader transatlantic relationship.” The email also
pressures Slovenia to direct EU Commissioner Vera Jourova to approve a
new agreement to replace Safe Harbor. The US embassy also sent documents
to the IPRS, which the IPRS is refusing to release.

The data protection authority of Italy confirms receiving communication
from the US embassy about Privacy Shield. The data protection
authorities in Finland, Germany, Latvia, Romania, and Sweden deny
receiving emails from the US embassy about Privacy Shield. The data
protection authority of Austria refuses to confirm or deny if it ever
received emails. In response to questions about the possible existence
of emails, the data protection authority of Luxembourg (CNPD) had a
rather bizarre reply. The CNPD stated that Luxembourg does not have a
freedom of information law. In addition, the CNPD refused to answer
questions about the US embassy by citing Luxembourg data protection laws.

For now, the true extent of American lobbying remains behind closed doors.


The text of this article is released into the public domain. You are
free to translate and republish the text of this article. Featured
picture is obtained from the US Department of Commerce.

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