PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Facebook: Data Protection (16 December 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect on individual’s data privacy of Facebook moving UK users on to US privacy agreements in 2021; and if he will make a statement.

Asked by:
Alex Davies-Jones (Labour)

On 15th December, Facebook publicly announced that from next year Facebook Inc in the US rather than Facebook Ireland will be the service provider responsible for UK users’ personal data.

At the end of the Transition Period, any online service provider dealing with UK users' personal data will still be subject to the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation. The legislation will, therefore, continue to apply to Facebook's treatment of personal data of UK users when those users are served from the US.

The UK is committed to high data protection standards and we are confident that the UK’s data protection laws provide appropriate protection for UK users.

Answered by:
Sir John Whittingdale (Conservative)
11 January 2021