Ruling Against Meta May Signal How Companies Must Rethink Data Traceability and Storage

The design of platforms increasingly needs to be re-engineered from the ground up for the emergent requirements of different data protection regimes around the world, says David Carroll. Shutterstock The pressure valve on the free flow of data across borders hit the red zone this week, with the latest EU ruling and fine against Meta by the data protection regulator in Ireland. Indeed, the fine is large ($1.3 billion) but as we know by now, the sum is just the cost of doing business for such a large tech firm, and it is not the most interesting element of this story. Perhaps far more significant is what the company is being ordered to do in less than six months: to stop sending data on Facebook users from the EU to the US.  Stepping back from the specifics of this particular ruling, it’s also possible to regard this moment in time as about the convergence of larger forces and narratives that have shaped the way nations think about data protection and privacy. In one possible reading, this is the saga of three young men that are about the same age: Edward Snowden, Max Schrems, and Mark Zuckerberg. Each of their destinies intersect and clash in in various ways, and each are tied to why the free flow of data across the Atlantic to the United States is increasingly at risk:  Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor, revealed the gory details of how social media platforms like Facebook are hacked with ease by…Ruling Against Meta May Signal How Companies Must Rethink Data Traceability and Storage