EU-US Trade Talks And NSA : Britain and Sweden block crucial espionage talks between US and Europe - by Ian Traynor

NSA surveillance scanda

The first talks to soothe transatlantic tensions to be restricted to data privacy and Prism program after Britain and Sweden's veto 

Britain has blocked the first crucial talks on intelligence and espionage between European officials and their American counterparts since the NSA surveillance scandal erupted.

The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA's Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two "working groups" on the espionage debacle with the Americans.

Instead, the talks will consist of one working group focused on the NSA's Prism programme, which has been capturing and storing vast amounts of internet and mobile phone metadata in Europe.

The disclosures in the Guardian over the past month have triggered a transatlantic crisis of confidence and threatened to derail crucial free trade talks between the EU and the US, also due to be launched in Washington on Monday.

The talks on Prism and data privacy have been arranged to coincide with the trade talks in an attempt to defuse the transatlantic tension. EU diplomats and officials say the offer of talks by the Americans is designed to enable the leaders of Germany and France to save face following revelations about the scale of US espionage – particularly in Germany, but also of French and other European embassies and missions in the US.

Other aspects of the dispute, such as more traditional spying and intelligence matters, will be off limits for the Europeans after Britain insisted the EU had no authority to discuss issues of national security and intelligence.

"It was decided. It finished successfully," said Dalia Grybauskaitė, the president of Lithuania, which has just assumed the EU's six-month rotating presidency and which mediated the sensitive talks in Brussels over the past two days.

Note EU-Digest: Several members of the EU-Parliament have said in relation to the above that the EU-Commission is showing "no balls" when it comes to confronting the Americans about their spying activities on European Citizens. As one parliamentarian noted: "who needs enemies when you have friends like this".

Read more: NSA leaks: UK blocks crucial espionage talks between US and Europe | World news | The Guardian

Personal Privacy Protection: Google hits more privacy flak in Europe - by Hayley Tsukayama

is facing increased pressure over its privacy policies, as British regulators ordered the tech giant to give users more insight into how the information it collects on them is used.

European regulators have become more critical of Google's business practices in the past year, including French and Spanish authorities who say Google's policies do not comply with their data protection rules.

Privacy advocates say that questions about how US firms protect European data will only become more pointed in the wake of revelations about a National Security Agency surveillance program, PRISM, that targets foreign data on the servers of US companies.

The surveillance program "combined with the ongoing investigation of Google's business practices, has created almost a tsunami of privacy enforcement," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has been less aggressive than other European regulators, has taken multiple steps against Google since the disclosure of PRISM, including demanding last month that the firm delete any remaining data inadvertently collected for its Google Street View mapping service.

On Friday, it followed that order with a second, broader, mandate that Google amend its privacy policy by September 20. The "updated privacy policy raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act," regulators said in a statement.

The information agency said that it was particularly concerned that Google's policy, which went into effect in March and covers more than 60 Google services, does not give users enough information about the data the firm collects and how it is used. It is also concerned that the policy does not disclose enough information about how long Google keeps user data.

If Google does not amend its policy, the ICO said it will "leave the company open to the possibility of formal enforcement action."

Last month, after a year-long investigation led by French data protection authority CNIL, French and Spanish regulators said Google could face fines if it did not amend its privacy policies within three months. The agency also indicated data protection officials in the Netherlands and Italy were assessing whether Google violates data protection rules in those countries.

Officials from the European Commission have warned that the fallout from the PRISM program could discourage European businesses from using American data storage providers such as Google, Microsoft and Dropbox.

On Wednesday, members of a key European Parliament committee voted to launch an inquiry into U.S. data surveillance programs and said they were open to suspending data-sharing deals with the United States.

Data privacy is also expected to be a part of US-EU trade negotiations that are scheduled to begin Monday.

Read more: Google hits more privacy flak in Europe