Historic E.U. Court Decision Annuls U.S.-E.U. Airline Passenger Data-Sharing Agreement; Department of Homeland Security Fails to Adequately Protect Passengers (5/30/2006)
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
ACLU Applauds Decision Striking Down US-EU Data-Sharing Pact
NEW YORK—Today’s historic decision by the European Court of Justice
striking down a data-sharing agreement between the United States and the
European Union is a striking rebuke for the United States, and shows the need
for the U.S. to reassess its plans for airline passenger profiling, the American
Civil Liberties Union said.
“The United States needs to get into the orbit of reality when it comes to
airline passenger data sharing and prescreening,” said Barry Steinhardt,
Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. “This decision
shows that our Homeland Security officials cannot keep fantasizing that they can
create a massive, all-encompassing global system for collecting data on
travelers by running roughshod over not only basic privacy protections but also
the laws of other nations.”
The court ruling came about after the United States pressured the EU to share
the private data of its passengers with U.S. authorities as part of the US
effort to collect identity and other information on every person who
flies. That agreement was reached while DHS was attempting to establish
its passenger prescreening program, then called CAPPS II, which has since been
modified and renamed Secure Flight.
“Europe has done what the United States should and must eventually do: create
enforceable laws to protect personal data,” said Tim Sparapani, Legislative
Counsel in the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. “This decision strikes
another blow at the administration’s over-reaching passenger screening
proposals. Perhaps the Transportation Security Administration will finally
learn that programs like Secure Flight and Registered Traveler are fatally
flawed and should be abandoned.”
The European Court’s ruling on the issue came after members of the European
Parliament objected to the U.S.-E.U. data-sharing deal, which was signed by the
European Commission, the executive branch of the European government.
“This court decision is a shot across the bow that tells us two things,” said
Steinhardt. “First, the United States is going to continue to have
problems until it recognizes that it cannot simply impose its will on our
friends and allies. Second, the U.S. approach to airline security – with
its heavy reliance on the tracking of identity and the collection of passenger
information – is not only impractical, but in conflict with many laws around the
world, and must be abandoned.”
Links to a 2004 report by the London-based Privacy International, with an
addendum by the ACLU, which outlines the reasons the data-transfer pact violated
European law, are online at: www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/15032prs20040202.html
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