Fergie's Tech Blog

European Fears Surface Over Possibility of U.S. Secret Services Access to European Domestic Banking Data

Via heise Online News.

The German Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar has critically remarked that the creation of a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) will mean that in future the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) financial network will also handle all domestic transfers.

This would make it possible for secret services, including those of the United States, ostensibly out to combat the funding of terrorist organizations, to gain access to such transfer data.

"If these data, as is planned, are handled by SWIFT, it would mean that, unless the system is changed, these data too will be available to the Americans for their investigations," Mr. Schaar, talking to the regional German public broadcaster SWR, said by way of summing up his misgivings about the developments. According to the data privacy advocate such a practice would "scarcely be compatible with our notions of sovereignty."

posted by Fergie @ 4/12/2007 01:26:00 PM