Padraic Hutton

DUBLIN (Reuters), – EU-U.S. Data Transfers by Meta Owned Facebook (NASDAQ) and Instagram may be halted as early as May, but it would not immediately affect other large tech companies. This was according to an interview with Ireland’s data privacy regulator.

In 2020, Europe’s top court declared that a EU-U.S. Data Transfer Arrangement was null due to concern that U.S. surveillance might not respect EU citizens privacy rights.

This prompted the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), Meta’s leading regulator in Europe to issue a pro forma order saying that Facebook’s and Instagram’s data transfer mechanism from the European Union to the United States was “not practicable.”

Although the order doesn’t apply to WhatsApp, it does have a different controller for its data within Meta. The case was initially halted by a legal challenge, but the matter was resumed in May, when Meta lost their claims.

Helen Dixon, Reuters spoke out saying that an updated decision might be shared with other EU regulators in April. If no objection is made to the decision, Helen Dixon said that “the earliest we could make a final determination could be at May’s end.” Any objections could delay the process by a few months.

She said, “If data flows were made illegally and had to stop,”

There is no possibility that the probe would cause an instant halt of data flow at Meta’s larger rivals. Some of them also have European headquarters located in Ireland.

Dixon stated that “the final decision the DPC makes in relation to Facebook” was specific and targeted only at Facebook.

“The CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union ) decision means that we cannot make a wider and more comprehensive finding. She said that we must go company-by-company.

Dixon stated that “hundreds and thousands” of entities would need to be examined, beginning with larger internet platforms.

Meta warned that a breakup will make it inaccessible to provide significant services like Facebook and Instagram in Europe, without the need for a transatlantic data transfer framework.

Although there is an ongoing political process in the U.S. Commerce Department with the EU Commission regarding such remedies, progress has not been reported to the Irish regulator.

Dixon’s office only has completed two investigations on multinationals as a result of new EU privacy regulations, which were introduced in 2018. This includes a hit to WhatsApp that cost it 225 millions euro.

Dixon stated that the DPC will likely complete 9-10 of the 30 open probles by 2022. This acceleration was due to Dixon’s near-doubling of staff over three years. It would also serve as an answer for critics who claim her office lacks the resources to handle the enormous workflow.

Dixon explained that the staffing ratio will rise to 260 in 2022, from 195 at present and 27 in 2014. But it must continue rising for many years to come.