Trump signs executive order stripping non-citizens of privacy rights

[Richard D]

With a stroke of his pen, the president just potentially invalidated a transcontinental data flow agreement between the US and EU which took years to negotiate.

The US-EU Data Shield agreement is an authorization framework which enables companies to transfer the personal data of Europeans to the US while ensuring that the companies operate within compliance of Europe's more stringent privacy laws. It effectively ensured that a European's personal data -- that is, any personal data originating from the EU, not just that of EU citizens -- would be protected to the standards that the EU demands whether the data is sitting on a server in Paris, France or Paris, Texas.

More than 1,500 companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft had agreed to abide by the Data Shield agreement, which requires the US Department of Commerce to ensure that American companies are operating in compliance. It took the place of the earlier Safe Harbor agreement, which the European Court of Justice ruled ineffective and invalid after the Snowden leaks came to light in 2013.

This agreement -- as well as the legal ability for US companies to serve European customers -- in now in very real danger of unravelling. And it's all thanks to an Executive Order that Trump signed earlier this week. Specifically, it's Section 14, which reads:

Privacy Act. Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/26/trump-signs-executive-order-stripping-non-citizens-of-privacy-ri/

[DonCoquixote]

1. Gee, make the EU fear oyr cybersystems more

You know, you could have easily gone all libertarian, pardoned snowden, hooked up with Glenn Greenwald and McAfee, and made privacy of cyberspace the one thing that even left leaning milennials would go "shit, I like that!"

[riversedge]

2. Was this a big Administrative Fuck up??.......

.... Act regarding personally identifiable information.

Enforcing privacy policies that specifically "exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents," while aimed at enhancing domestic immigration laws, effectively invalidates America's part of the Data Shield agreement, opens the current administration up to sanctions by the EU and could lead our allies across the Atlantic to suspend the agreement outright.

.@EU_Commission : If adequacy is no longer guaranteed, we will have to suspend the #PrivacyShield #cpdp2017
— Laura Kayali (@LauKaya) January 25, 2017

If that happens, things are going to get really uncomfortable for US companies trying to do digital business in the EU. Without that authorization framework in place, these companies will be forced to operate in a legal grey zone making it far more difficult for them to serve their European clients.

[rzemanfl]

3. "to the extent consistent with applicable law" is the out. IMHO n/t

[Phoenix61]

4. Guess he's never watched People's Court

You talk to the lawyer before you sign anything. This will not turn out well for Twittler and he will blame the dipshit who wrote the Executive Orders. Yep, Bannon may just find himself in the crosshairs of the Twittler's temper tantrum. I really think Bannon is the root of the problem. Twittler is easily manipulated and right now Bannon is playing him like a fiddle.

[canetoad]

16. Of couse Bannon is driving this

He's making the bullets for DFT to fire.

[NightWatcher]

5. What a dick

[CousinIT]

6. Is this ALL this asshole is going to do is sign EO after EO to avoid going thru congress?

He's literally Ayn Rand's secretary at this point.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. It would appear to be the case.

[groundloop]

8. I want to know who's writing these 'executive orders'

Surely tRump isn't up to the task. It's my belief that some ultra right wing hacks (probably associated with Koch's) are writing this shit and tRump is just happily signing away like a chimpanzee.

[C_U_L8R]

10. I hope it wasn't a lawyer

...cause these barely sound legal.
There's going to be lawsuits flying the second Trump
actually tries to enact any of his royal pronouncements.
He's so fucking clueless.

[bdamomma]

11. Bannon is writing and passing all the EO's

and tRump is just signing them. tRump can't comprehend anything.

[underpants]

9. Several of these won't stand. He's just trying to cement his base

They'll hear that he did what he said he would do and not be aware when most of these go nowhere.

[central scrutinizer]

12. Well, that should send the balance of trade into the shitter

No European will buy anything from a US firm. And you would be crazy to travel to the US and use any card

[SickOfTheOnePct]

13. The Privacy Act of 1974 only applies to federal entities

hence the reference to "Agencies" in Section 14. It doesn't apply in any way to companies, so changing it to exclude non-U.S. citizens has no effect whatsoever on companies and/or customers in Europe.

[Yo_Mama]

14. I am quite sure that this is a non-existent problem. His order covers the government, not

the companies involved in these transfers.

The EO addresses US government internal policies for government agencies. This EO would not and could not change anything about Apple or Google or Amazon data operations.

The Data Shield agreements are private compacts between individual companies and the EU agency overseeing it.

The EO does not change anything about those company operations. These are two sets that do not intersect.

[Yo_Mama]

15. Wikipedia covers the Privacy Act policies referenced

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_Act_of_1974

The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub.L. 93–579, 88 Stat. 1896, enacted December 31, 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a), a United States federal law, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies.