New Report on American Grab of European Air Passenger Data

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 14:22:12 -0500
From: Barry Steinhardt <Bsteinhardt () aclu org>

Dave,

Privacy International, the European Digital Right Initiative  and 
Statewatch have published a report Transferring Privacy: The Transfer of 
Passenger Records and the Abdication of Privacy Protection  on the 
agreement by the European Commission to transfer private information about 
air travellers flying from Europe to the US .The report and commentary on 
the role of the US Government by the ACLU, along with a link to the the 
highly critical report of the internal EU "Article 29 Working Group" on 
Privacy can be found  http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14852&c=130.

Notably the reports shows that the European Commission has failed to 
protect the privacy and fair process rights of its residents and the 
citizens of other nations, including Americans, who fly from Europe to the US.

   * The Europeans declared US privacy protections "adequate," a finding 
required under EU law for sharing data, despite the fact that the U.S. 
clearly does not meet the criteria for such a finding.
   * Although the EU legal regime only permits data transfer for combating 
terrorism, the European Commission allowed the US to use information for 
regular crimes as well.
   * The Commission announced that the December 2003 agreement did not 
permit the U.S. to use European data for CAPPS II, and that would be 
negotiated separately.  A few weeks later, however, the U.S. Department of 
Homeland Security declared that European records are currently being used 
to test CAPPS II.  This even before a Congressionally mandated study of the 
likely privacy implications and effectiveness of CAPPS has even been 
completed.
   * The Commission accepted a U.S. offer to retain European data for 3.5 
years, far in excess of what EU regulations permit.
   * The Commission accepted a weak due process procedure that is entirely 
internal to the Department of Homeland Security, where EU rules require a 
true right to redress for citizens who believe their data is being abused.
I hope you will post this message and the links to IP. I believe the list 
members will find it of interest.

Barry Steinhardt






Director Technology and Liberty Program
American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street NYC 10004

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