“Companies within Europe will still be able to collect EU Citizen data, and the NSA [National Security Agency] still collects data in foreign intelligence operations,” Budington said.
“It's no surprise, given the revelations by Edward Snowden, that the CJEU [European Court of Justice] would declare a program transferring the private data of millions of EU Citizens illegal,” Budington said. “This is yet another instance of the national surveillance apparatus' broad collection authority impeding trust in US-based tech businesses.”
Budington said localization efforts of bulk data collection will not push the “balkanization” of the Internet closer to the present time.
The only way to stop data collection, Budington argued, is to dismantle bulk collection programs, as well as keep private data of citizens protected by strong encryption.
“This applies both within the companies’ internal infrastructure so the links between datacenters are encrypted, as well as where available keeping that data encrypted at rest,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Center for Democracy and Technology European Affairs Director Jens Henrik-Jeppesen said it is imperative that the United States and the European Union should implement clear and lawful guidelines and safeguards regarding surveillance in order to protect citizen privacy.
