European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

US and EU reach deal on personal data (Update)

by Jerome a Paris
Sat Oct 7th, 2006 at 04:20:07 AM EDT

US and Europe reach draft air data deal The FBI and other American anti-terror agencies will have easier access to sensitive personal information on passengers flying from the European Union to the US, under a deal agreed on Friday. (...)
Michael Chertoff, head of the US department of homeland security, last month warned that his agency was “handcuffed” by European privacy requirements that had hindered it giving information to other agencies.(...)
Speaking at an EU justice ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg,[Franco Frattini, EU justice commissioner] said: “We are not talking about more data or more exchanges, we are talking about making it easier to transmit data.”(...)
Requests from other agencies that might conduct counter-terrorism investigations, such as the US Treasury and the Department of Justice, would have to be examined on a case-by-case basis, EU officials said, and these authorities would not have direct electronic access to the records.(...)
EU officials said that Washington will continue to store the data for up to three and a half years. The US will also retain the right to share the records with other governments, they added.(...)
The new pact, finalised after a nine-hour video conference, is valid until next July. Brussels and Washington will in November start talks for a longer-term agreement.

It's hard to know what's actually been agreed. Transmission to other agencies, the new US requirement, seems to be curtailed, but I suppose it depends what procedures are used on "a case by case" basis. So the agreement reproduces what was already in place, which was outrageous enough.

Again, Europe needs to do two things: (i) tell each European passenger the full list of information given to the USA (and ask them to agree to such transmission when purchasing a plane ticket), and (ii) block any agreement with the US until the EU-10 are treated exactly the same as the EU-15 by the US.

earlier version of the diary below the fold

Financial Times
The United States and Europe have reached a preliminary accord on new rules to supply personal data on U.S.-bound air passengers as part of the fight against terrorism, an EU official said on Friday.
(...) The accord, which would replace former arrangements struck down by a top EU court in May, must still be formally approved by EU justice ministers meeting on Friday.

A press conference is taking place this morning, I'll update when more information comes.

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US and EU reach deal on personal data (Update) | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (4.00 / 2)

It's not a deal, it's a surrender.

The only thing the EU has - supposedly - balked at is free-for-all US data trawling.

But otherwise, all of the details that have been listed, and very possibly a few we don't know about, are being sent over with every flight.

And - let's be clear about this - this is political. It's about identifying dissenters. There may be some effort to find Muslim extremists, but that's a handy extra, not the main point of the exercise.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 09:59:13 AM EDT

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 1)

The EU should pull out of the Visa Waiver Program, presto.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 10:03:03 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 1)

The problem with pulling out of visa waiver is that it's a declaration of diplomatic war.

I think the EU should simply have said that the information isn't available. Or - as a fall back position, as you suggest - let passengers decide if flying to the US is worth giving immigration these details.

Rolling over isn't setting a good precedent for future negotiations.

I think there's already a sizeable minority who are wondering if travel to the US can possibly be worth it.

And if anyone's thinking of going to ChicaKOS - how does it feel to know that you will be tagged and filed by definition, just for attending?

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 01:26:52 PM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 0)

One further issue with the Visa Waiver Program is that the US refuses to extend it to the EU10. If the EU10 had decided to veto the decision of the Council of Ministers, on the grounds of 1) no second class EU citizens; and 2) EU citizens' right to privacy; there would have been no agreement.

What in the world needs to happen for the EU to declare diplomatic war on the US?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:04:25 PM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (4.00 / 3)

The whole system is nonsense of course - the "no-fly" list crock as well.

Why? Because the names of real terrorist suspects are too secret to go on a list like this - you don't want an investigation ruined because some minimum wage security checker finds their names on a list. So, the really dangerous people aren't on the list. All it does is divert resources from real security - a mix of random and very carefully targeted secondary searches being most peoples' favourite - in favour of the appearance of security.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 10:14:24 AM EDT

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (4.00 / 3)

In fact, if a real terrorist wanted to fly you'd probably let him if you didn't think he was up to anything immediate because otherwise you'd compromise the investigation.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 10:15:23 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (4.00 / 2)

It's the Enigma dilemma, isn't it - to act on your information advantage will inevitably destroy it.

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 11:18:34 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 1)

It's worse than that: if you're on the list you know you're not considered an important target.

Part of the problem is that the deciders think that the enemy are all stupid a-rabs and therefore don't have to be credited with acting intelligently. The amateur terrorists don't act all that intelligently and get caught. The dangerous ones plan and think. They've read the same sort of literature as I have (and much more closely!) and they understand how to attack these sorts of systems. They also understand which systems are hard to attack and will avoid them. The politicians, as usual, have no clue and in the current environment seem to specialise in ignoring expert advice and instead listen to sales pitches. I guess experts don't buy them good lunches.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 11:24:52 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 1)

I suppose not all politicians are dumb? Just like there are smarth and dumb terrorists there will be smart and dumb politicians and the smart ones have read the same things that you have read? Maybe the cognitive dissonance has made their heads explode and q=they have quit politics?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 11:32:15 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (4.00 / 2)

If there are smart politicians they're sure as hell not making security policy in the US.

I'm beginning to believe rather strongly that the skill set required for successfully getting elected in a debased media environment is rarely found in the same person as either the skills need for successful decision making or successful delegation.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 11:35:17 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

You are beginning? (4.00 / 3)

I'm beginning to believe rather strongly that the skill set required for successfully getting elected in a debased media environment is rarely found in the same person as either the skills need for successful decision making or successful delegation.

You're beginning to think so? It's been bleeding obvious for quite while now. People like Chirac, Blair, Bush, hell, even Reagan's main talent is to campaign (and to slime and bring down rivals) and get elected.

Competence, if any, will come from the bureaucracy. Thus i hate those that criticze bureaucracies. If they are dysfunctional it is because of poor leadership and focus and territorial warfare rather than issues, and that comes from the top.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 04:26:45 PM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 1)

Of course. Reagan proved that rather too much of the US population prefers fantasy government theatre to rational and informed policy making.

Blair has tried the same thing here, with less successful results (although worryingly, the approach hasn't been a total failure.)

But generally if you look at the output of Hollywood, and the beliefs of the evangelicals and fundies, at how US corporations operate, at how Iraq has been run, how Katrina was mismanaged, the one thing all of these have in common is a flight from an adult engagement with reality. Instead there's a preference for busy extrovert comic book non-solutions, driven by a huge element of 'heroic' fantasy, and a simple black and white narrative of good vs evil.

If the narrative actively contradicts reality, so much the better. (qv. The Path to 9/11 as a recent example. And Foley's ironic job as protector of adolescents as another.)

At every level, policy in the US is drawn with a crayon, not a fountain pen. This isn't going to change until some grown-ups start running things again over there.

And even then, there's still the huge, huge problem that there's a significant demographic that thinks with crayon strokes, and is easy prey for any con artist who comes along and tells them what they want to hear.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 01:40:40 PM EDT
[ Parent ]

Funny (none / 1)

Last 2 paragrpahs of the article:

EU negotiators are wary about appearing to yield too much to U.S. demands given widespread European public misgivings over President George W. Bush's "war on terrorism".
Transatlantic ties will not have been helped by the European Commission's proposal on Wednesday that EU states force U.S. diplomats to apply for visas in retaliation for Washington's refusal to waive visa requirements for most new EU countries.

So it's European requirements that do not "help" transatlantic ties, not the refusal by Washington...

And if there are European misgivings - inform each passenger of the data which is given to Americans. How hard is that?

Passengers will be "free" to decide if they want to hand it out to travel.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 06:37:35 AM EDT

Re: Funny (none / 1)

wary about appearing to yield

Says it all, imo.

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:15:54 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Funny (none / 0)

Yes, it's all about managing European Public opinion. Whither democracy?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:20:33 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Funny (none / 0)

BBC lists the data that the European airlines are supposed to give the US:

Passenger profile
The Passenger Name Record (PNR) data that has been transferred up to now, falls into 34 overlapping fields, some of which contain very little information, for example the passenger's name, while others contain a lot, including the passenger's name (again), date of birth, sex, citizenship and so on.
Some of this information is collected when the ticket is booked, some of it at check-in, and some is information about the passenger's travelling history, which can be gleaned from the reservation database. Not all the fields will necessarily be filled in.
The data can be broken down into the following categories
Information about the passenger: name; address; date of birth; passport number; citizenship; sex; country of residence; US visa number (plus date and place issued); address while in the US; telephone numbers; e-mail address; frequent flyer miles flown; address on frequent flyer account; the passenger's history of not showing up for flights
Information about the booking of the ticket: date of reservation; date of intended travel; date ticket was issued; travel agency; travel agent; billing address; how the ticket was paid for (including credit card number); the ticket number; which organisation issued the ticket; whether the passenger bought the ticket at the airport just before the flight; whether the passenger has a definite booking or is on a waiting list; pricing information; a locator number on the computer reservation system; history of changes to the booking
Information about the flight itself: seat number; seat information (eg aisle or window); bag tag numbers; one-way or return flight; special requests, such as requests for special meals, for a wheelchair, or help for an unaccompanied minor
Information about the passenger's itinerary: other flights ticketed separately, or data on accommodation, car rental, rail reservations or tours.
Information about other people: the group the passenger is travelling with; the person who booked the ticket
The CBP system has been built in such a way that some "sensitive" information is filtered out.
Protected data
According to the undertakings on data protection provided by the US, this includes "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 the individual".
This means that Halal or Kosher meal preferences will not show up, while requests for a vegetarian meal will.
(...)
The PNR data is not used simply to check names against blacklists of known suspected terrorists, but to find new suspects with suspicious patterns of behaviour
"You can be sure that the US will construe whatever they can from the information provided. You can construe a lot from someone's name," says Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform.
The PNR data is not used simply to check names against blacklists of known suspected terrorists, but to hunt for people with suspicious patterns of behaviour.
"They have compiled a number of scenarios which they believe amount to suspicious activity and the data is screened for a match. Did the passenger pay cash, did he have baggage? And so on," says Hugo Brady.

Not using a credit card is unAmerican.

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:22:39 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Funny (none / 0)

Cash is untraceable, therefore suspicious.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:27:16 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Funny (none / 0)

According to the undertakings on data protection provided by the US, this includes "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 the individual".
This means that Halal or Kosher meal preferences will not show up, while requests for a vegetarian meal will.

can we get European Buddhists to sue the US and the EU for religious discrimination?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:29:28 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Cash (4.00 / 2)

I pay in cash as much as possible. It's the guaranteed way to disrupt the system. Most people think its so cool to use a pin card at the supermarket and pay everything with plastic. Banks are so, oh, so impressive and respectable. If everyone started using more and more cash, a financial revolution would be triggered. Let the black money and the white money roll! Try to avoid banks, all financial institutons as much as possible. I'm a decrepit hippie.

by Quentin on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 08:23:10 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Funny (none / 0)

Not using a card or check, as Miguel pointed out, is a bit odd, because going from the US to Europe (or the other way) usually involves forking over at least £500, if you're headed to Britain, and probably much more to others, since there is a lot of competition on that route, coming out of Atlanta, JFK, Reagan, and Ft. Worth. That's a lot of cash to carry around. I'm not saying it should be illegal, obviously, but it can easily be seen as an initial eyebrow-raiser.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 08:33:53 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: Funny (none / 1)

If you use your card to pay for airport parking, or a taxi to the airport, or a hotel nearby, or if you buy something on your card in France on Monday and in NYC on Tuesday, your travel particulars have already made it into your personal record in Acxiom's database anyway. What's the problem, oh continent of heaviest credit card usage?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acxiom

by asdf on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 06:48:56 PM EDT
[ Parent ]

NOT Funny (none / 0)

This whole thing is about preserving the Visa Waiver Program for the EU15. As quoted in yesterday's breakfast:

GovExec.com [via Google News]: Senators urge Chertoff to strengthen visa waiver program (September 19, 2006)
Senate Judiciary Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sent Chertoff a letter asking him to strengthen the visa waiver program by implementing recommendations from a Government Accountability Office report earlier this month.
...
Kyl said the government needs more information faster on travelers boarding planes so border officials can make informed decisions on whether they should be cleared. "Congress may need to alter the requirements of the program to ensure that visa waiver countries are giving DHS the data it needs to make those decisions," he said.
GAO found several weaknesses with the program. The department has not established adequate operating procedures for countries to report stolen or lost travel documents to the program and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol); and has not given U.S. border inspectors automatic access to Interpol's databases at primary inspection points, GAO said.
Jeez, give the Department of Homeland Security a booth at the departure airport, or else pull out of the Visa Waiver Program.

I can't help but notice the prominent role played by Diane Feinstein, my favourite [not!] US Senator from California.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 07:39:04 AM EDT
[ Parent ]

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (none / 1)

A brief aside: I'm not sure that the US gvnt. simply waits for data from the EU members, rather than actively seeking them.

This past June, for example, a Greek left-wing academic was stopped at JFK airport in New York, detained, questioned, and quickly deported, despite being invited to a Conference organized by the State University of New York - a Conference he had attended in the past with no similar problems. The only thing that differentiated his status this time is that a. he is now a high-ranking member of SYRIZA (a Coalition of the nonstalinist left, ecologists etc - somewhere in the area between the PCF, Rifondazione and the Dutch Socialists) and that he had, a couple of months before the incident, been a speaker at the European Social Forum. So someone is paying close attention to very legal (and most definitely not terrorism related) political activities inside the EU, across the pond...

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake

by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Fri Oct 6th, 2006 at 08:17:41 AM EDT

Re: US and EU reach deal on personal data (Update) (none / 1)

I consider this a surrender to.
When you see how pleased some people are : it is disgusting. They just wonna do business:

European airlines applaud interim EU/US agreement on transfer of passenger data

The Association of European Airlines has announced it "warmly welcomes" the successful completion of the talks between the EU and the US Administration. The Agreement signed today will enable the passenger data to continue to be transferred to the US in the same way as under the previous.

The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)

by Elco B (elcob at scarlet dot be) on Sat Oct 7th, 2006 at 06:34:03 AM EDT

US and EU reach deal on personal data (Update) | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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