NYT: Europe and U.S. Agree on Air Passenger Data - by Tom Rachman

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Europe and U.S. Agree on Air Passenger Data - by Tom Rachman

Seeking to strike a balance between the Bush administration’s campaign against terrorism with European privacy protections, negotiators for the European Union and the United States reached a new deal Friday on the disclosure of extensive personal information about travelers who board flights bound for the United States.

Mr. Frattini explained the deal in terms of push and pull: The United States will not be able to pull data directly from European databases; instead, the Europeans will push it to them, increasing their control over the flow.“The European Parliament strongly suggested a change from pull to push, and we achieved this result,” Mr. Frattini said at a news conference in Luxembourg held to announce the deal. He said the agreement would “guarantee legal certainty in a very sensitive matter.”