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Under the agreement, US law enforcement agencies will be given easier access to travelers' personal records, including credit card, passport and telephone details. |
LUXEMBOURG — The United States and Europe clinched a deal on sharing detailed data about airline passengers traveling to the Unites Sates, an EU official confirmed Friday, October 6.
"Yes, an agreement has been reached," said the official without giving any details about the content of the deal, Reuters reported.
The accord was approved by the EU ambassador but still needs to be formally approved by EU justice ministers during their meeting later on Friday.
Under the agreement, US law enforcement agencies will be given easier access to travelers' personal records.
The United States has been demanding that more of its law enforcement agencies have access to personal details about travelers headed to US airports.
Washington maintains it needs the passengers' data to better combat "terrorism".
The data -- including credit card, passport and telephone details -- is currently sent to the US customs authorities. But the US Department of Homeland Security has pressed for sharing the data with other agencies, including the FBI.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday, August 22, that the US and the EU were seeking to tap deeper into airline passenger databases which include itineraries, personal information and bank credits, not only to look for terrorists on watch lists but also to identify people who may be linked to terrorists.
Limbo
The new US-EU deal will replace former arrangements struck down by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in May.
Under a deal reached in 2004, aircraft leaving the EU for US airports had to provide more than 30 pieces of data about passengers at least 15 minutes before departure, or face being diverted and the possibility of heavy fines.
But following a complaint about the agreement based on privacy concerns, the ECJ ruled that it had been made on the wrong legal basis.
The court, thought it made no objection about what was actually contained in the agreement, ordered the two parties to come up with a new legal framework by September 30.
The lack of an agreement has left the airlines in an uncomfortable legal limbo, with some airlines now asking passengers for permission to forward the information.
Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration has secretly been tapping into a vast global database of confidential financial transactions under the pretext of terror combat.
The monitoring involves millions of records held by the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), an international cooperative that serves as a clearing house for the transactions.
A US judge on August 17 halted President George W. Bush's "unconstitutional" domestic spying program, dealing a blow to Bush's attempts to expand sweeping access to people's data. |
