FACEBOOK MAY HAVE TO STOP MOVING EU USER DATA TO US

Facebook may be forced to stop sending data about its European users to the U.S., in the first major fallout from a recent court ruling that found some trans-Atlantic data transfers don’t protect users from American government snooping.

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The social network said that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has started an inquiry into how Facebook shifts data from the European Union to the United States.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said Ireland’s data commission gave Facebook until mid-September to respond to a preliminary order to suspend the transfers.

The result could be that the U.S. tech giant, which has data centers around the world, is forced to undertake a costly and complex revamp of its operations to ensure that European user data is kept out of the U.S. It’s unclear, however, what impact - if any - there would be on Facebook users.