This is a major blow for Meta. Ever since Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations on US big tech aiding the NSA mass surveillance apparatus, Facebook (now Meta) has been facing litigation in Ireland. Despite this, Meta has failed to take any material precaution for ten years and simply ignored the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and the EDPB.

As a result, not only does Meta have to pay a record fine of €1.2 billion, but it must also return all personal data to its EU data centers.

Impact on Other Large US Cloud Providers

The current conflict between EU privacy laws and US surveillance laws is also a problem for other large US cloud providers such as Microsoft, Google or Amazon. The underlying US surveillance law (FISA 702) must be reauthorized by December 2023. This may encourage US big tech to push for material changes, now that there is the first major fine from EU data protection authorities. Several decisions from France, Italy and Austria have found the use of US services unlawful but did not include any major fines.

Meta will likely file an appeal with both the Irish and potentially European Courts; however, it is unlikely that this decision will be materially overturned due to two previous CJEU cases between 2007 and 2023 which found there was no valid legal basis for EU-US data transfers. There is also no option for any new deal to legalize past violations of the law.

Meta’s EU-US Data Transfer Deal

For future transfers, Meta hopes to switch to a new EU-US data transfer deal which has already faced harsh criticism from the European Parliament but will likely come into force after summer. However, it is not unlikely that this new deal will be invalidated by the CJEU with retroactive effect. Just like its predecessors “Privacy Shield” and “Safe Harbor”!

The Irish DPC’s role in this procedure has been exceptional. In 2013, it rejected Mr Schrems’ original complaint as “frivolous” requiring him to go all the way to the CJEU. Then took the view that it could not take action due to Meta making use of so-called “Standard Contractual Clauses” which was again rejected by the CJEU who told them they must take action. Finally, they tried to shield Meta from a fine and deletion of transferred data only to be overturned by the EDPB. These procedures have cost more than 10 million Euro. Though the fine will go to the Irish state.

Meta’s Future in Europe

Meta had previously spread rumors that it would stop providing services in Europe. However, this is highly unlikely given Europe’s status as their biggest source of income outside of the US. And their already established local data centers in the EU. A possible long term solution could be some form of ‘federated social network’ where most personal data would stay in the EU while only ‘necessary’ transfers would continue.

Meta has known about their legal situation for 10 years and was served with a draft decision in 2022. This makes it hard to argue ignorance or lack of preparation time. CJEU judgement allows users to claim emotional damages for smaller GDPR violations, like US mass surveillance, which could lead to larger penalties. The EU’s Collective Redress Directive will allow collective actions by European users for GDPR violations this summer; more litigation may follow.

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However, it’s been a tough week for large language models like Chat GPT. Many AI users can manipulate chatbots to do things their creators never intended. It’s still early days, but it’s possible we’ll hear a lot more about this in the coming months. Montana lawmakers recently voted to prohibit downloads of TikTok in the state. Governor Greg Gianforte is expected to sign this into law, despite potential legal and technical obstacles. The Airman’s top secret breach remained in headlines this week.

Airman’s top secret breach: Man charged with leaking top intel

Jack Teixeira is a 21-year-old airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He is the man who is charged with retaining and transmitting national defense information and withholding classified documents. Teixeira allegedly leaked top-secret intelligence to members of an invite-only chat room called Thug Shaker Central on Discord. That online group consisted of two dozen adolescent boys and young men who didn’t fully understand the significance of the leak.

The leak, which circulated online for weeks, contained sensitive information about Russian military tactics during the conflict in Ukraine. It also contained intelligence reports on friendly nations like Israel and South Korea, among other topics. The leak’s bizarre circumstances have frustrated and embarrassed US intelligence officials. They are now considering potentially expanding the surveillance of online chat rooms.

Monitoring public chat rooms is common practice for law enforcement. However surveilling private conversations without probable cause would run into serious legal and civil liberties hurdles. Former general counsel of the National Security Agency, Glenn Gerstell, said that the US government does not want a system where it monitors private internet chats.

In response to the incident, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin jumped in. He ordered a review of intelligence access, accountability, and control procedures within the department. This step was taken to to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Western Digital Suffers 10 TB Data Loss to Hackers

According to TechCrunch, a group of hackers has claimed to have hacked data storage company Western Digital and is holding 10 terabytes of stolen data hostage. The hackers are demanding a “minimum 8 figure” ransom from the company. They threaten to publish the stolen data if their demands are not met.

The hackers, who spoke to TechCrunch, claim to have access to customer information. However, the exact data that has been stolen is still unknown. The hackers have contacted several company executives. They urge them to pay the ransom and resolve the situation. Western Digital has yet to release an official statement on the matter.

New Spyware Discovered in 10 Countries Worldwide

In a latest report, researchers from Microsoft and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab revealed that a shadowy Israeli firm called QuaDream has been using its sophisticated hacking tools to infiltrate the smartphones of politicians and journalists in at least 10 different countries.

The company was founded in 2016 by former employees of the notorious NSO Group. It specializes in developing cutting-edge smartphone hacking software for government clients. The researchers found that the QuaDream spyware targeted older versions of Apple’s iOS phone software. The spyware uses sneaky techniques like sending malicious calendar invites that wouldn’t show up for the intended targets.

Citizen Lab also discovered QuaDream servers in locations. From the United Arab Emirates and Mexico to Uzbekistan and Israel itself, QuaDream is widepread. The implications of this latest revelation are deeply troubling and raise serious questions about the ethics of using such tools against journalists and politicians.

WhatsApp Rolls Out Enhanced Protection Against Hackers

WhatsApp has recently rolled out a brand-new security feature that’s geared towards preventing hackers from stealing users’ accounts. This exciting addition requires individuals who are downloading WhatsApp on a new device to confirm their account by using their old device. By doing so, WhatsApp has implemented an extra layer of security to safeguard users from potential account takeovers.

According to a WhatsApp spokesperson who spoke to Engadget, the Account Protect feature will only kick in when the company detects a malicious account takeover. Additionally, in the event that a user no longer has access to their old device, they can easily obtain a one-time passcode from WhatsApp. With this new security feature in place, users can now rest easy knowing that their WhatsApp account is better protected than ever before.

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