Angela Merkel Tells US Firms To Meet German Privacy Rules 153
judgecorp writes "Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has given her backing to proposed European privacy regulations and demanded that U.S. firms should meet German privacy rules. Merkel's stance comes as U.S. firms lobby against strict E.U. privacy proposals — but also follows revelations from Edward Snowden through German newspaper Der Spiegel, that the German authorities are helping the NSA spy on German citizens."
Re:This is only possible at the moment (Score:4, Informative)
When Facebook/Google sells to local businesses in Europe, it does not matter that f/g is entirely off shored as they need
Ely block the money. For an example of how off shored businesses can be brought to heel, see the gambling sites the USG has been blocking.
Re:This is only possible at the moment (Score:5, Informative)
I was recently at an IT conference in Geneva.
A speaker from a large company there warned those attending (mainly from Europe) to avoid US cloud companies because of NSA spying. Not just US-based servers, but also any company with SUPPORT STAFF located in the US as well, even if the servers are located outside of the US.
Reason 1 is the risk of private company information flowing to competitors through the NSA either officially or through corruption.
Reason 2 is the legal risk of falling afoul of EU privacy laws by hosting in the US or with US support staff.
That's the report from Europe folks. You can call it FUD, but it is there nonetheless.
Re:Only applies to EU citizens, presumably (Score:5, Informative)
But these US companies do business in the EU. If, say, Google really truly only existed in the US it'd be one thing, but they do not. They make a good deal of their income from advertising and services in the EU; have facilities, offices and data centers there; most have daughter companies in the area.
Put it this way: EU car makers must follow US safety standards for the vehicles they export to the US, right? Even though they don't actually make them there, or have the head office there or anything. So, if you're an online business and solicit users and income in the EU it's jsut as reasonable that you have to follow local laws for that business as well.
Re:Only applies to EU citizens, presumably (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, the DGSE has to comply with German rules when dealing with German citizens. It has to comply with EU rules when dealing with everything, even non-EU citizens. Unlike the US we don't have this concept of rights only applying to our own citizens, they apply to everyone.