Top data watchdog wants tit-for-tat over US demands

The EU should collect and store data on US citizens travelling and transferring money to Europe to demonstrate the concerns over measures Washington is imposing on European citizens, a top data protection official has said.

Peter Schaar, Germany’s data protection supervisor, who is chairman of the group of EU member states’ data protection supervisors, said that if the Union collected and stored fingerprints on US citizens flying to Europe and held information on American financial transactions, the US might better understand the problems such measures create in Europe.

"We have to confront them with a mirror, perhaps with their policy, because there is not so much reflection in the United States as far as I have found about the consequences of their measures to third parties," Schaar said, in an interview with European Voice.

Schaar’s comments come as EU interior ministers meet on Monday (10 September) to discuss imposing reciprocal measures on US citizens after the recent adoption of a law in Washington that will require EU citizens to register online before boarding flights to the US.

Another new law signed by President George W. Bush last month would allow the US authorities to intercept emails and phone calls from non-US citizens outside its borders which are routed through their territory. The US already collects personal information on airline passengers and, under a new agreement signed in July, the authorities will be able to store the information for longer and have the possibility of accessing sensitive data, such as a passenger’s religious and political beliefs and ethnicity.

Another agreement reached reinforces a practice continuing since 2001 giving the US authorities access to Europeans’ financial transactions. Such laws and agreements, coupled with the collecting of fingerprints by the US at its borders, have worried data protection and civil liberties groups.

"I would not be sure what would be the reaction if the European Community would have access to inner American financial transfer data…I would be very interested to hear what would be the reaction if EU member states asked travellers from the US to give them ten finger prints and stored this data for a retention period of 40 years, I would be very interested in the reactions of the US public," Schaar said.

Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, will brief ministers on the Commission’s assessment to date of the new law requiring EU citizens to register online before travelling to the US. He has said that he also intends to introduce a European system of collecting data on airline passengers entering the EU.

Controversy continues over the latest deal reached with the US to transfer European airline passenger data. People whose records are collected under this system can now challenge the information held under the US Privacy Act, but the Department of Homeland Security has recently been given some exemptions, including "immigrant and non-immigrant pre-entry, entry, status management and exit processes", which would cover European citizens. Statewatch, the civil liberties group, is also criticising a letter sent by the US authorities to the Portuguese presidency requesting that all documents and information on the negotiations of the treaty be kept secret "for at least ten years after the entry into force of the agreements".

The EU should collect and store data on US citizens travelling and transferring money to Europe to demonstrate the concerns over measures Washington is imposing on European citizens, a top data protection official has said.