Fergie's Tech Blog

EU Data Watchdog: Europe Risks Becoming 'Surveillance Society'

Alan Brackley writes on the Cyprus Observer:

Europeans risk coming under permanent surveillance, if European Union governments continue to meet US demands for access to personal data on their nationals, the EU’s data watchdog has warned.

A recent transatlantic deal on sending key European air passenger data to authorities in the United States “is a slippery slope which shows a lot of ambiguity and leaves room for much interpretation,” European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Hustinx, who monitors the processing of personal data by EU institutions, has the power to take cases of privacy infringements to the EU Court of Justice, the bloc’s top legal body. As the data protection supervisor, he acts independently of EU institutions and gives governments and EU bodies advice on security standards.

posted by Fergie @ 10/27/2006 08:49:00 PM