-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 23, 2007 9:47:26 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: "Free" or Caged Animals, No Visitors Allowed Unless They
Submit to Interrogation
Europeans alarmed at US
"right" to highly personal data
Religion, sex life among details that must be passed on to officials
Jamie Doward, home affairs editor
The Observer (UK), July 22, 2007
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2132099,00.html
Highly sensitive information about the religious beliefs, political
opinions and even the sex life of Britons travelling to the United
States is to be made available to US authorities when the European
Commission agrees to a new system of checking passengers.
The EC is in the final stages of [negotiating] a Passenger Name
Record system which will allow American officials to access
detailed biographical information about passengers entering
international airports.
The information sharing system with the US Department of Homeland
Security, which updates the previous three-year-old system, is
designed to tackle terrorism but civil liberty groups warn it will
have serious consequences for European passengers. And it has
emerged that both the European parliament and the European data
protection supervisor are alarmed at the plan.
In a strongly worded document drawn up in response to the plan that
will affect the 4 million-plus Britons who travel to the US every
year, the EU parliament said it 'notes with concern that sensitive
data (ie personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political
opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union
membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of
individuals) will be made available to the DHS and that these data
may be used by the DHS in exceptional cases'.
Under the new agreement, which goes live at the end of this month,
the US will be able to hold the records of European passengers for
15 years compared with the current three year limit. The EU
parliament said it was concerned the data would lead to 'a
significant risk of massive profiling and data mining, which is
incompatible with basic European principles and is a practice still
under discussion in the US congress.'
Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, has written
to the EC expressing his 'grave concern' at the plan, which he
describes as 'without legal precedent' and one that puts 'European
data protection rights at risk'.
Hustinx warns: 'Data on EU citizens will be readily accessible to a
broad range of US agencies and there is no limitation to what US
authorities are allowed to do with the data.'
He expresses concern about 'the absence of a robust legal mechanism
that enables EU citizens to challenge misuse of their personal
information'.
Hustinx concludes: 'I have serious doubts whether the outcome of
these negotiations will be fully compatible with European
fundamental rights, which both the Council and the Commission have
stated are non negotiable.'
The new agreement will see US authorities gain access to detailed
passenger information, from credit card details to home addresses
and even what sort of food may have been ordered before a flight.
In addition, US authorities will be free to add other information
they have obtained about a passenger, leading to concerns about how
the information will be shared.
It has emerged that neither Hustinx nor the European parliament
were aware of the final draft of the plan.
'If you are going to have this kind of agreement it should involve
parliament and the data protection supervisor,' said Tony Bunyan of
Statewatch, the civil liberties organisation that campaigns against
excessive surveillance.
He warned that under the new system the data will be shared with
numerous US agencies. 'The European parliament is angry that it was
not even consulted,' Bunyan said. 'The anger is also about other
elements of the plan, such as giving the US the absolute right to
pass the data on to third parties.'
Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, another group that
campaigns against state surveillance, said the new agreement gave
huge powers to the US authorities. 'We have no guarantee about how
this data will be used,' Davies said.
A spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner's Office in England
and Wales said it would be discussing the matter with European
counterparts shortly. 'We are working with the European Data
Protection Supervisor and our other EU data protection colleagues
to come to a joint opinion on the level of data protection set out
in the final agreement,' the spokeswoman said.
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