Joe Klamar | AFP | Getty Imagessharing of data on its European users with the U.S. is legal and provides sufficient protections, the legal advisor to the EU's top court said Thursday.
"Standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries is valid," heThe decision is not a ruling as such, but legal experts say opinions from the advocate general are typically upheld. "Based on history, in most cases the opinion is followed by the courts," says Patrick Van Eecke, technology partner at law firm DLA Piper.
He successfully brought down the EU's "Safe Habor" data regime in 2015, but argues the bloc's new "Privacy Shield" arrangement on EU-U.S. data transfers is merely an update to the previous system and remains unlawful.