Parliamentarian Provides Privacy Update
A European government official expects that President Barack Obama's administration will improve the nation's relationship with the EU on privacy issues. "It may probably be the case that the first changes happen within the U.S. itself, meaning that the respect for data privacy in the fight against terrorism will be much stronger, in general," wrote Ignasi Guardans, a member of the European Parliament and a substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, in an email. He added that he believes that the U.S. government "is very much aware that this is just one among the big examples of issues where the 'arrogant' image of the U.S. in the last years can be substantially improved."
Meanwhile, the EU has been engaged in discussions to maintain its own database of passenger name record data and to impose the collection of PNR data for flights that occur within the EU. Currently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security maintains a database of PNR data between the two bodies. Gaurdans expects the PNR data debate within the EU to last until after the European elections take place in June.
Gaurdans said the European Commission is putting pressure to harmonize PNR data plans to avoid ending up with 27 different plans. He said that only France, Denmark and the U.K. have actually adopted legislation on the use of PNR for law enforcement purposes. "There has been very strong criticism from the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Fundamental Rights Agency and the House of Lords [and] as far as there is no EU legislation in place, U.K. can in principle do what they want as long as they follow national, and to the extent it is relevant, EU data protection legislation," he added. -- Winter Casey
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