[Politech] ACLU, Privacy Int'l on Eurocrats' "global travel surveillance" [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Tue Feb 03 2004 - 10:38:16 PST

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "[Politech] Paper on privacy impact of Orkut, Friendster, Plaxo, etc. [priv]"

    ---
    
    Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 15:11:04 +0000
    To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>
    From: Simon Davies <s.g.davies@private>
    Subject: more scandal about PNR and air privacy
    
    Declan,
    
    this is our latest report on the air travel privacy issue. Some disquieting 
    things have come out of it. I'd be grateful if you would circulate this on 
    Politech :-)
    
    Hope all is well
    
    Cheers
    
    Simon
    
    
    PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL
    
    MEDIA RELEASE
    
    
    Report on Transfers of Air Passenger Data to the U.S. Department of 
    Homeland Security:
    
    Report discloses covert EU strategy to establish regime of global travel 
    surveillance
    
    Negotiations by the European Commission described as "systematic deception 
    and subterfuge".
    
    2nd February 2004
    For immediate release
    
    
    
    The human rights watchdog Privacy International today published a detailed 
    report on covert actions by the European Commission intended to undermine 
    the privacy rights of air travellers.
    
    The report is the most comprehensive investigation yet published on 
    negotiations between the US Department of Homeland Security and the 
    Commission over the mandatory transfer to the US of files on all EU air 
    passengers.
    
    The report has been released in association with European civil rights 
    groups Statewatch and the European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRi). It 
    includes a commentary from the American Civil Liberties Union, voicing its 
    concerns regarding the action of the U.S. government, while also raising 
    their concern about the overstepping done by the EU.
    
    A demand by the US for EU passenger data has provoked widespread concern in 
    Europe. The Commission pledged to undertake hard-line negotiations to 
    appease the US while also protecting Europe's cherished privacy rights.
    
    However the Privacy International report provides damning evidence that the 
    Commission has engaged in a process of systematic deception and subterfuge 
    in the latter stage of negotiations.  Not only has it allowed key privacy 
    rights to be extinguished in a deal struck with the US last December, but 
    it has also failed to disclose its own intention to establish a more 
    extensive regime in the EU. The proposed EU surveillance system will be 
    used not only for purposes of anti-terrorism, but also for immigration, law 
    enforcement and customs.
    
    The Commission has also been silent about its pivotal role in plans to 
    establish a global air travel surveillance system similar to the one being 
    built by the US.
    
    The report's principal author, Dr Gus Hosein, Senior Fellow at Privacy 
    International, said: "This is a case of opportunism by the Commission.  The 
    EU is can blame the U.S. for an admittedly unjust law, but then going 
    further than the U.S. to establish a global system of surveillance of 
    movement."
    
    Privacy International has expressed its concern and anger at the actions of 
    the Commission. It urges the European Parliament to conduct a comprehensive 
    investigation into the affair, with a view to taking legal action against 
    the Commission.
    
    Privacy International's Director, Simon Davies, warned that the Commission 
    had overstepped its mandate and had breached the trust of European 
    citizens. "The European Parliament and the people of Europe have been 
    deceived by the Commission. A full-scale investigation is now necessary. We 
    believe legal action should be taken against the Commission to ensure that 
    this dangerous subterfuge does not occur in the future", he said.
    
    The report is available in pdf format at
    http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/terrorism/rpt/transferringprivacy.pdf
      _________________
    
      - Simon Davies is at simon@private Gus Hosein is at gus@private
    
    - Privacy International (PI) www.privacyinternational.org is a human rights 
    group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and 
    corporations. PI is based in London, and has an office in Washington, 
    D.C.  Together with members in 40 countries, PI has conducted campaigns 
    throughout the world on issues ranging from wiretapping and national 
    security activities, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, police 
    information systems, and medical privacy, and works with a wide range of 
    parliamentary and inter-governmental organisations such as the European 
    Parliament, the House of Lords and UNESCO.
    
    
    --
    
    Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 14:25:27 -0500
    To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>
    From: Barry Steinhardt <Bsteinhardt@private>
    Subject: New Report on American Grab of European Air Passenger Data
    
    Declan,
    
    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 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 Politiech. 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
    
    
    _______________________________________________
    Politech mailing list
    Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Feb 03 2004 - 11:21:13 PST