NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE The Irish government could find itself in the ?hot seat? if a case before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) finds in favour of the plaintiff. An Austrian student, Max Schrems, took a complaint to the Irish High Court about the transfer of data by Facebook to the United States. His action came in the wake of revelations by whistleblower US Intelligence Operative Edward Snowden that data companies such as Facebook had conspired with the US National Security Agency to ?harvest? the data of internet users. The case involves Ireland because of the Facebook subsidiary based there. There is a report on the case here: (voir le site) Interestingly in the first instance Shrems appears to have taken the issue up with Ireland?s Data Commissioner who dismissed his concerns. Readers of Celtic News will recall that the Irish data Commissioner was similarly unmoved by concerns about the UK MOD accessing data on potential British Army recruits from the Irish Republic (see link): (voir le site) As indicated the ECJ judgement in the Schrems case will be extremely interesting. In will place the Irish government in the difficult position of having to take actions which may upset the United States and indeed multinationals such as Facebook. Additionally a positive outcome for Schrems is likely to leave the Data Commissioner in Ireland with some difficult questions to answer. J B Moffatt (Mr) Director of Information Celtic League 24/03/15 (Please note that replies to correspondence received by the League and posted on CL News are usually scanned hard copies. Obviously every effort is made to ensure the scanning process is accurate but sometimes errors do occur) ISSUED BY THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE The Celtic League has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It works to promote cooperation between these countries and campaigns on a broad range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, monitors all military activity and focuses on socio-economic issues Internet site at: (voir le site) (voir le site)
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