Can Facebook or Google really promise to keep your data private in this era of mass surveillance by the likes of the NSA and GCHQ? Max Schrems doesn’t think so, and he’s convinced the EU Court of Justice of the same thing. There’s no way to protect user data when intelligence agencies are hoovering up all our communications and storing them on massive server farms forever. In part 2 of my chat with EFF’s Danny O’Brien, we’ll talk about the two Shrems cases in the EU and what the recent ruling against Privacy Shield will mean for all of us.

Danny O’Brien has been an activist for online free speech and privacy for over 20 years. In his home country of the UK, he fought against repressive anti-encryption law, and helped found the Open Rights Group, Britain’s own digital rights organization. He was EFF’s activist from 2005 to 2007, its international outreach coordinator from 2007-2009, and international director from 2013-2019. He now supervises EFF’s medium and long-term strategy, with an eye to maintaining the organization’s global impact and reputation.