Comment by sylware
3 years ago
I don't understand.
They can host locally the data and remotely query it.
What's important is the "intelligence" the data does provide: giving critical and unfair advantage for those who have the whole data.
For instance, microsoft has an unfair advantage almost anywhere because they have access to the whole linkedin database.
European companies are not allowed to share PII with American companies. That goes for companies with a headquarters in the USA or subsidiaries that may be forced to share data thanks to laws like the US Cloud Act.
Previously, the EU exempted the USA through an "adequacy decision". That was later deemed illegal under EU law as American laws could not guarantee the privacy of EU citizens to the extend the GDPR prescribes. Then the EU tried again, and again such a decision was also overturned in court. The EU is working on another attempt at letting the USA track PII of EU users, but until they do that again (probably for another few years) it's illegal to share PII with American companies in almost all situations.
This is the third time a data processing agency has declared the use of Google Analytics illegal so it shouldn't really come as a surprise to those following tech news.
What's important is that the data is PII and that it's going to a place that can't guarantee privacy to an acceptable standard. Business advantage is irrelevant. The intelligence the data provides is also irrelevant. European privacy laws serve people, not businesses.
That does not change the issue: EU microsoft has a local unfair advantage in EU because it has access to the whole database of linkedin (which they own).
Additionaly, denying remote access is almost impossible to enforce. It would require a efficient and permanent deep monitoring of their servers.
linkedin should be illegal since this data should not be privately own.