US and EU near Agreement on Exchange of Personal Data

To be honest I believe the European governments have been giving this sort of information to the US for quite some time with it very difficult for an individual to find out if such transactions have taken place, this only makes it official. Sure there are some worrying elements about it but there are also some positive things, it eases the preventation of transatlantic credit card frauds and other similar crimes. This agreement won't override national law anyway so if it's illegal for your local government to get such information it will still be illegal to give such information to the US government.

Also the European Comission (and EU in genreal for that matter) has very limited rights in accepting international agreements making this seem more like an agreement of princips, otherwise it would need to be ratified by parliaments of each member states where I'm sure the discussion would be somewhat more open and lively.

 

In itself the exchange of such date is nothing new. Within the EU, the Prüm treaty covers that already and such data exchange within Europe routinely takes place. Why they chose to sign it in that godforsaken place will remain a marvel to me.

Prüm covers the exchange of data regarding DNA, fingerprints, vehicle registrations, informations about major events (think football championships or major protests), and especially about terrorists and terrorist threats. No matter what European intelligence services have already given to the US, this new treaty will be a major expansion.

Prüm needed to be ratified by each country, the new treaty with the US won't be any different. For expediency it will be negotiated under the leadership of the EU, witch each member state present, a complicated but legally necessary process. The Prüm treaty itself was, however, by decision of the council of the secretaries of justice and the interior of the EU member states on June 12./13.2007, incorporated into the EU code.

Legal problems do arise in the following fields:

First, the exchange of data might involve data about actors who contributed acts that constituted a crime in one state, but not another - so a state might be forced to deliver data about acts that are not criminal under their own law. These problems do exist with Prüm, and they do apply equally to an eventual treaty with the US.

Second, problems specifically to a treaty with the US will be about US guarantees to meet European standards of protecting privacy, which are far more stringent than in the US (where privacy is basically for US citizens only).

Think about precedents like presidential overreach in the so-called 'domestic spying' (when they don't think their own laws apply to Americans, which rules then do apply to foreigners?) Then, data about what sort of crimes will be shared? What about anti-nuclear protest (potential eco-terrorists!), pick pocketing, perhaps fare dodging? How long will they store such data? Considering the reportedly goonish immigration procedures, how will DHS/ICE deal with the passengers with such information in their hands? Will they deny a traveller who has been identified as a nuclear protester in Holland, where he was exercising his right to protest, entry into the US because they see do him as a 'potential security threat'? Will they just interrogate him for a few hours?

That is not far fetched. Will they seize his camera or laptop? Just think of what journalists can go through when they today visit the US. Europe will want to have assurances on all that, and the US will want to meet them (or not, anyway; odds are they'll run into trouble along the way first, to the detriment of the poor souls who'll face the wrath of ICE until then) lest they will risk non-cooperation from the EU. Reciprocity, too, will be an important issue. Will Europe get the same information about Americans in return?