The background to EU citizens' court win over US tech giants

Data privacy rights have been backed by a new ruling, the latest twist in a nine-year campaign to limit surveillance by US agencies

A ruling of the court of justice of the European Union (CJEU) could prevent tech companies like Facebook from sending data from the trading bloc to the US, after finding that there are not enough protections against snooping by American intelligence agencies. It is the latest ruling in a long-running European legal saga.

July 2000: EU and US develop the Safe Harbour Privacy Principles, which allow personal information to be transferred between the two without breaching the EU's data protection rules. Under the principles, US companies can self-certify that they comply with the EU data protection directive.