As a European it sort of makes you wonder about this Data Protection Act, with its loophole safe harbours to allow data transfer to the US. How exactly is that protected under these circumstances, and have Europe just given up on protecting anything because the US told them so?
Nothing was 'given up'. Something was traded.
European intelligence agencies regularly 'launder' intercepts through foreign governments ('hey NSA, we'll trade you some info, if you can get us some info on one of our own...').
I asked have they just given up, so in that context given up referred to stopped trying to protect us. Your comment seems to suggest that yes, they have given up on protecting Europeans' data.
EU data protection regulations are in force. There will no doubt be some scrutiny as to what data safe harbour companies have transfered outside the EU and what steps were taken to protect it.
