The leading social media player Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) has announced that it will start handling the user data of all the non-American users under the Irish law. As per the reports, the changes will be made from May 18, 2015.
Insights on the Announcement
Twitter wants its user data to get covered under Irish privacy and data protections laws. All those users who are based out of U.S. will continue to get covered under US law. As per the reports, the changes will cover all the digital, Periscope, and core services of the company. The change will affect the user handling of almost 77% out of 288 million users who live outside of U.S.
According to a report published in the Irish Times, the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland has been informed and given a notice about Twitter’s intentions. He plans to initiate talks with Twitter over its plans about future proceedings. It’s not the first time when a U.S. tech company has decided to head to Ireland. The country houses multiple American tech companies.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is also fighting a legal battle with the government of United States that wants to access user data for the company using US warrants. Microsoft has stored its user data in Irish data centres, and U.S. government is trying hard to access that data using all means possible.
Europe is also in the process of updating its data protection rules. It wants to enforce that all the companies that operate within EU follow the European Privacy Rules in any circumstance. Several other countries including Germany are also looking forward to updating their data protection rules to avoid any future misunderstanding.
The financial disaster that occurred a few years ago indicated a lot of loopholes in the user data protection laws of most of the European countries. It’s the primary reason all the major nations want to ensure that something like that never happen again.
Image credit: twitter.com
