Facebook Spy Claims Face Privacy

Sally Aldous, a spokeswoman for Facebook in London, declined to comment on the judge’s decision.

Spy Agencies

Companies that allow U.S. spy agencies to gain access to data on European Union citizens may violate data-protection law, a group of European regulators said in April. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive officer, contacted U.S. President Barack Obama to express frustration over government spying, he wrote in a post in March. Company engineers “work tirelessly” to improve the site’s security, he said.

Zuckerberg said last year that Facebook “is not and has never been part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers.”

Ireland’s data-protection authority is in charge of Facebook’s compliance with EU data-protection law because the social network owner’s European headquarters are located in Dublin. Facebook’s Irish unit is responsible for the business outside of the U.S. and Canada.

‘So Serious’

The Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s Office said it was “appropriate” that the EU court should weigh the issues, including a possible re-evaluation of the EU-U.S. pact, “because the data privacy issues raised by the Snowden revelations are so serious.”