ACLU Applauds EU Court Decision Striking Down US-EU Data-Sharing Pact
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.”
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