Facebook and its EU users – applicability of the EU data protection law to US based SNS

Abstract

The present paper examines the problem of applicable data protection law in a relationship between EU users and non-EU based Social Networking Site (SNS). The analysis will be conducted on the example of Facebook, which is one of the most popular SNS. The goal of the paper is to examine whether European users of Facebook can rely on their national data protection legislations in case of a privacy infringement by the SNS. The 95/46/EC Directive on Data Protection provides several options to protect EU residents in such relation. The paper will analyze whether Facebook’s participation in the Safe Harbor Program means that it is a subject to the regulation of the Data Protection Directive. Then, the paper will discuss if data processing activities of Facebook fall under the scope of the Data Protection Directive at all.