Commission agrees US access to EU citizen personal data

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
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Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 16:42:51 +0100
From: Peter Lowe <pgl () yoyo org>
Subject: Commission agrees US access to EU citizen personal data
To: dave () farber net

For IP if you like

 - pgl

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34563.html

Commission agrees US access to EU citizen personal data
By John Lettice
Posted: 17/12/2003 at 11:23 GMT

The European Commission has struck a deal with the US Department of
Homeland Security allowing the handing over of data on EU citizens
travelling to the US by airlines. The US currently requires access to
airlines' Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, while EU privacy law forbids
its transfer to the US. After some amendments which the Commission
describes as concessions, however, the US' proposed treatment of this
data has been deemed sufficient to rate an "adequacy" finding, and thus
passes muster in the Commission's view.

According to Frits Bolkestein, the Commission rep who presented the
proposals to the European Parliament Committees on Citizens' Freedoms
and Rights yesterday evening, the hard-wrung concessions are as follows.
The amount of data to be transferred has been reduced to 34 elements,
compared to the 39 that a recent European Parliament report felt
"excessive." The US will not however require airlines "to collect any
data where any of these 34 elements would be empty" (no, we're not
altogether sure how that works either), so Bolkestein reckons it will
come down to 10-15 in practice.

Bolkestein also claims that the retention period has been cut from a
laughable 50 years (laughable at both ends, as the more recent US demand
was seven) to 3.5 years. This compares with an EU regulation of 72 hours
for access, with archiving allowable for up to three years.
Significantly, Bolkestein tells us the 3.5 years covers the lifespan of
the current agreement, i.e. the Commission has got the US to agree not
to hold onto data after the agreement expires. Does this still hold good
if (when) the agreement is renewed? One wonders.

Concession three is that the deal will not cover the US Computer
Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS II), which will "only" be
considered in a forthcoming round of discussions, and in any event won't
be dealt with until such time as Congress has stopped being worried
about the system. So actually this concession only counts as a
concession if the Commission has stopped the US experimenting on
foreigners. Which we suppose it might have.

Alongside these we have "stronger guarantees with respect to overall US
compliance," annual joint reviews, and a US acceptance that EU data
protection authorities amy represent EU citizens seeking redress. The US
Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection will
not bulk share data with other agencies, and the US has agreed to delete
combatting serious domestic crime from its list of uses for the data.
This does not however meet the EU objective of restricting the use of
data to fighting terrorism. As the DHS says: "PNR data is used by CBP
strictly for purposes of preventing and combating: 1) terrorism and
related crimes; 2) other serious crimes, including organized crime, that
are transnational in nature; and 3) flight from warrants or custody for
the crimes described above."

That would seem to leave adequate scope for mission-creep.

In addition to considering Bolkestein's presentation, which can be found
here, European Parliamentarians would do well to consider the DHS'
analysis of the deal it's clinched. Note that it claims Bolkestein "has
committed to proceed with rapid negotiations with a goal of establishing
a legal framework for TSA use of PNR data for CAPPS II."

This isn't particularly out of line with what Bolkestein's been saying,
of course. He and the Commission have a multilateral system for PNR use
on their wishlist, and will be in there CAPPS-profiling with the best of
them, given the chance. The European Parliament and European Data
Commissioners didn't like the US requirements earlier this year, so
should now be considering what it might be about the new 'renegotiated'
requirements that might make them acceptable. ®

--
The Czech Republic: Home of the world's finest beer.
Litres drunk by Czechs so far this year: 1,580,774,984.06

 - http://prague.tv/toys/beer/

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