Planned EU privacy law no magic bullet against U.S. spying

Stung by revelations about the scale of U.S. electronic spying, Europe has been itching to show it can protect its citizens from snooping - but planned new privacy legislation risks a head-on collision with U.S. law.

However much European Parliament lawmakers may fume at the leaks from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Europe has a poor record in battles with U.S. justice and intelligence services over its citizens' data, the law would oblige companies to tell European regulators when an intelligence service was requesting data on a European citizen, and to get the regulators' approval.

U.S. companies and lawyers say there is one glaring catch: in most cases they are not allowed to tell anyone, even a European regulator, about a data request, demands for information often come from courts set up in 1978 under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Services Act (FISA), with a gagging order attached. Breaching such an order of a FISA court can spell hefty fines and even jail.

Google and Microsoft have so far failed to lift the gag, underlining the difficulties U.S. companies face in complying with rules in Europe, "prior authorization for transfer of EU citizen data is in direct conflict with U.S. law, namely the FISA act," said an industry source on condition of anonymity.

source reuters.com