Austria's Schrems sees positives in EU Facebook court case

Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems said he was "generally happy" with the legal opinion of an adviser to Europe's court case in his long-running dispute with Facebook, saying it followed almost all of his arguments. The adviser said tools used by hundreds of thousands of companies to transfer data abroad do offer sufficient privacy protection for users but Schrems also took solace from the ruling.

"Everyone will still be able to have all necessary data flows with the U.S., like sending emails or booking a hotel in the US," he said. "It is really upon the United States to ensure baseline privacy protections for foreigners. Otherwise no one will trust U.S. companies with their data."