Member States of the European Union have been reminded by the Council that the recent European Court of Justice decision concerning data protection is binding and has serious implications for privacy and data protection in the EU. The decision of the Court’s Grand Chamber was that the EU’s 2006 Data Protection Directive was invalid on the grounds that it was an unlawful interference with the right to privacy and a violation of rules concerning personal data protection contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights...The Data Directive and the judgment have particularly relevance in Ireland, given the presence of several of the world’s largest information and technology companies and their connection with the NSA surveillance scandal. The European Court of Justice had noted that the Directive covered all phone, e-mail and internet “traffic data”...[refers to Facebook]