back to article Relax Schrems, EU-US Safe Harbour ruling coming soon

Next Tuesday, Europe’s top court will decide whether the much-discussed and sometimes controversial EU-US data sharing deal provides enough privacy protection for citizens. Less than two weeks after the opinion of the European Court of Justice's Advocate General (AG), Yves Bot, became public, the body will rule on the Max …

  1. Graham Marsden
    Big Brother

    "The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone"

    This is obviously one of those strange definitions of the word "surveillance" that means "we troughed loads of data, but nobody physically *looked* at it, therefore people weren't under surveillance..."

    Doubleplus good, Proles!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone"

      No, it is the definition of "anyone" which is interesting.

      When presented to American public this is "Do not worry, it is foreigners only, not Americans". So it is indeed "not anyone" (at least at the moment).

      Well, Eu are foreigners so based on the public statements of NSA and friends so far the Safe Harbour is not worth the toilet paper it is printed on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone"

        Safe Harbour is not worth the toilet paper it is printed on.

        The problem is, nobody can find it, because Obama flushed it.

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: "The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone"

      I'm sorry, for a moment there I thought I had read "I did not have sex with that woman".

      My bad.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone"

        I depends on the meaning of the word 'is' is.

  2. KingStephen

    The US mission refutes many of Bot’s comments

    To refute something is to prove it wrong.

    All they did was state that they disagree.

    The word you're looking for is rebut.

    1. Ben Liddicott

      Re: The US mission refutes many of Bot’s comments

      No, sorry. Collins English dictionary, second entry:

      http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/refute

      1. Graham Marsden

        @Ben Liddicott - Re: The US mission refutes many of Bot’s comments

        From right below that second entry:

        "USAGE The use of refute to mean deny is thought by many people to be incorrect "

        And here's a quote from my Collins English Dictionary published in 1986:

        "Refute is often used incorrectly as a synonym of deny. In careful usage, however, to deny something is to state that it is untrue; to refute something is to assemble evidence in order to prove it untrue: all he could do was deny teh allegations since he was unable to refute them

        Your cite is simply reflecting the fact that the word's meaning is changing *because* of its repeated incorrect usage.

  3. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    RE : "The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone"

    Quite right in that it doesn't do that. In fact it actually engages in the discriminate surveillance of everyone (allegedly).

    And - "has been critically important to the protection of individual privacy and the conduct of commerce on both sides of the Atlantic; it has served, and continues to serve, as a model around the world for the protection of individual privacy and flow of data across national borders".

    To paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies... well, they would say that, wouldn't they.

  4. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Oh no, let me shed a little tear...

    “If the agreement becomes invalid, businesses such as Google and Facebook will need to significantly restructure how they manage and use data. The cost implications could be huge, with many of them having to extensively expand their data centre capacity throughout Europe,”

    Shame. My heart is err... bleeding.

    1. P. Lee

      Re: Oh no, let me shed a little tear...

      I'm crying with you.

      Remind me again, what is the downside for europe if the agreement is shredded?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh no, let me shed a little tear...

        Remind me again, what is the downside for europe if the agreement is shredded?

        I think corruption might be a factor in why it wasn't shredded a couple of years ago - what rational reason was there for keeping it once the depradations of the NSA became known. Perhaps some officials will see a drop in their standard of living.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    speed of the decision is rumoured to be because one of the senior judges is set to retire

    MORE retirements on ALL fronts, please!

    ...

    alternatively, perhaps the REAL reason for this faster-than-light move is that the EU-crats find it a pressing and very, very important matter for EU citizens... Yeah, I bet! :(

  6. MrTuK

    With the NSA Hard Disk spying software, I am not sure any data anywhere would be out of reach for them as long as its connected to the internet !

    And now with Win 10 and Cortana etc, even if you are offline most of the time as soon as you connect to the internet woosh data is uploaded to NSA via MS servers !

    Hmmm does that mean if this goes ahead MS will have to relocate it servers to the UK as well ?

    But its all pointless anyway, GCHQ will just pass on anything that NSA request's for !

    I guess people will just have to stay offline and send USB sticks through the mail - encrypted of course !

    That could be interesting, what could GCHQ do about that, ban sending USB sticks in the mail ?

    I can just imagine the post office opening all mail with USB sticks in them, copying the data encrypted or not onto a server for GCHQ to examine at there leisure ! While you get a real delay on your first class recorded delivery package, but I can see people doing this to avoid the damn surveillance in society these days or maybe business's which have offices in two different locations as USB 3.0 flash drives are getting very fast now and quite big as well !

    What could be more secure than doing this especially if you use a courier !

    I can just imagine couriers being stopped and told to handover all packages to be x-rayed to check if they have a USB stick as their contents, now hold on buddy, we need to open this one and copy the data before you can continue on your journey, Oh shit this is gonna take a while as there are 25 x 256gb USB sticks here and I only got one USB 2.0 port on this laptop !

    Doh !

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    US doesn't and hasn't engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of ordinary European citizens.

    Markela, you heard that? They didn't tap your phone indiscriminately, they only did that because you are a particular valid foreign intelligence target!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    President Obama has taken unprecedented steps to enhance transparency and public accountability

    yeah, on a scale of 1 - 100 somewhere between 2 and 3. Oh, give the man credit, maybe even 4 out of 100. Totally unprecedented, absolutely true!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: President Obama has taken unprecedented steps to enhance transparency and public accountability

      So, how many of those 4 points actually belong to his speechwriters?

  9. sysconfig

    Safe Hoarder

    Fixed the name of the defunct writ to reflect its actual purpose.

    Along those lines, if the agreement is declared null and void, what about the huge amount of data that has previously been shared?

  10. Mage Silver badge

    I fell of my chair laughing!

    "“The US does not and has not engaged in indiscriminate surveillance of anyone, including ordinary European citizens."

    Yes you do.

    So apparently does GCHQ.

  11. Eclectic Man Silver badge

    Snooping

    Would this be the same USA which hacked into EU computers to obtain intelligence about EU - US negotiation strategies all those years ago?

    I suspect their idea is the same as the Daleks. They do not use indiscriminate surveillance, they just do eveyone who isn't a USAn / Dalek. (Though lets face it I be the Russians do much the same, or would like to.)

    In the Words of the new Minister for Magic - 'You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.'

    <You don't think I might be just a teensy weensy bit paranoid, do you?>

    1. Richard Taylor 2

      Re: Snooping

      <You don't think I might be just a teensy weensy bit paranoid, do you?>

      Yes. But it seems reasonable paranoia

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Snooping

        <You don't think I might be just a teensy weensy bit paranoid, do you?>

        It would be paranoia if it wasn't for the irrefutable evidence that they really are spying on you (and everyone else).

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