In Response To Attacks, Sweeping Data Collection To Be Proposed for EU Airports
Of the proposal's alleged privacy protections, civil liberties advocate says: 'It is a joke. They are not safeguards.'
A new European Commission counterterrorism plan to be published on Wednesday would require 42 separate pieces of information on every passenger flying in and out of Europe, including their bank card details and home address, to be stored on a central database for up to five years for access by the police and security services, according to exclusive Guardian reporting.
While the plan's designers say safeguards are in place to protect personal privacy, civil liberties advocates immediately spoke out against the proposal.
Of the alleged protections, Jan Philipp Albrecht, vice-chairman of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, told the Guardian: "It is a joke. They are not safeguards. Depersonalization does not make the data anonymous. All they have to do is ask a senior officer for the identity to be revealed."
"It is an open breach of fundamental rights to blanketly retain all passenger data," Albrecht said, citing a recent European court of justice ruling that blanket collection of personal data without detailed safeguards is a severe incursion on personal privacy.
The plan comes as a response to this month's Paris attacks. It is a reworked version of a proposal put forth--and shot down by the civil liberties committee--two years ago.
The Guardian reports:
European interior ministers, including the home secretary, Theresa May, who has been pushing the issue most strongly, agreed in Paris on the day of the "Je Suis Charlie" unity march that their main counter-terrorism priority in tracking foreign fighters was to overturn the European parliament's opposition to the plan.
They issued a joint statement saying there was a "crucial and urgent need to move toward an European passenger name record system" and immediate progress will be on the agenda when EU interior ministers meet in Riga on Thursday.
Just this week, the top human rights organization in Europe issued a report saying mass surveillance programs threaten fundamental human rights and may do more harm than good in the fight against terrorism.
And on Wednesday, the U.K.-based watchdog group Privacy International noted that eight separate regional and international bodies "have pronounced...mass surveillance a gross violation of human rights."
"Faced with all this evidence, outrage, and demand for change, one would think that our leaders would be moving toward some reform," Privacy International legal director Carly Nyst writes. "Sadly, we have seen the opposite."
Nyst also took her criticism of the proposed counter-terror plan to Twitter:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
A new European Commission counterterrorism plan to be published on Wednesday would require 42 separate pieces of information on every passenger flying in and out of Europe, including their bank card details and home address, to be stored on a central database for up to five years for access by the police and security services, according to exclusive Guardian reporting.
While the plan's designers say safeguards are in place to protect personal privacy, civil liberties advocates immediately spoke out against the proposal.
Of the alleged protections, Jan Philipp Albrecht, vice-chairman of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, told the Guardian: "It is a joke. They are not safeguards. Depersonalization does not make the data anonymous. All they have to do is ask a senior officer for the identity to be revealed."
"It is an open breach of fundamental rights to blanketly retain all passenger data," Albrecht said, citing a recent European court of justice ruling that blanket collection of personal data without detailed safeguards is a severe incursion on personal privacy.
The plan comes as a response to this month's Paris attacks. It is a reworked version of a proposal put forth--and shot down by the civil liberties committee--two years ago.
The Guardian reports:
European interior ministers, including the home secretary, Theresa May, who has been pushing the issue most strongly, agreed in Paris on the day of the "Je Suis Charlie" unity march that their main counter-terrorism priority in tracking foreign fighters was to overturn the European parliament's opposition to the plan.
They issued a joint statement saying there was a "crucial and urgent need to move toward an European passenger name record system" and immediate progress will be on the agenda when EU interior ministers meet in Riga on Thursday.
Just this week, the top human rights organization in Europe issued a report saying mass surveillance programs threaten fundamental human rights and may do more harm than good in the fight against terrorism.
And on Wednesday, the U.K.-based watchdog group Privacy International noted that eight separate regional and international bodies "have pronounced...mass surveillance a gross violation of human rights."
"Faced with all this evidence, outrage, and demand for change, one would think that our leaders would be moving toward some reform," Privacy International legal director Carly Nyst writes. "Sadly, we have seen the opposite."
Nyst also took her criticism of the proposed counter-terror plan to Twitter:
A new European Commission counterterrorism plan to be published on Wednesday would require 42 separate pieces of information on every passenger flying in and out of Europe, including their bank card details and home address, to be stored on a central database for up to five years for access by the police and security services, according to exclusive Guardian reporting.
While the plan's designers say safeguards are in place to protect personal privacy, civil liberties advocates immediately spoke out against the proposal.
Of the alleged protections, Jan Philipp Albrecht, vice-chairman of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, told the Guardian: "It is a joke. They are not safeguards. Depersonalization does not make the data anonymous. All they have to do is ask a senior officer for the identity to be revealed."
"It is an open breach of fundamental rights to blanketly retain all passenger data," Albrecht said, citing a recent European court of justice ruling that blanket collection of personal data without detailed safeguards is a severe incursion on personal privacy.
The plan comes as a response to this month's Paris attacks. It is a reworked version of a proposal put forth--and shot down by the civil liberties committee--two years ago.
The Guardian reports:
European interior ministers, including the home secretary, Theresa May, who has been pushing the issue most strongly, agreed in Paris on the day of the "Je Suis Charlie" unity march that their main counter-terrorism priority in tracking foreign fighters was to overturn the European parliament's opposition to the plan.
They issued a joint statement saying there was a "crucial and urgent need to move toward an European passenger name record system" and immediate progress will be on the agenda when EU interior ministers meet in Riga on Thursday.
Just this week, the top human rights organization in Europe issued a report saying mass surveillance programs threaten fundamental human rights and may do more harm than good in the fight against terrorism.
And on Wednesday, the U.K.-based watchdog group Privacy International noted that eight separate regional and international bodies "have pronounced...mass surveillance a gross violation of human rights."
"Faced with all this evidence, outrage, and demand for change, one would think that our leaders would be moving toward some reform," Privacy International legal director Carly Nyst writes. "Sadly, we have seen the opposite."
Nyst also took her criticism of the proposed counter-terror plan to Twitter: