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Air data should be private
May 19, 2004 12:00 AM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The Guardian
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The Guardian
The decision by European governments to conclude an agreement on handing over to the US sensitive personal data on all transatlantic air passengers is both wrong and sneaky (EU hands over data on air travellers, May 18).
The European parliament has voted several times against this agreement on the grounds - as highlighted in a unanimous report of all EU national data protection watchdogs - that US "undertakings" on use or misuse of the data were legally unenforceable and not worth the paper they were written on.
This example is a strong argument for greater powers for the European parliament to block this kind of deal, which currently can be done over our heads. The council of ministers has signed while we are in recess for the Euro elections and in order to spike our referral of the matter to the European court of justice. The only bright spot is that they have followed our demand to delete meal preferences, which could lead to the singling out and further stereotyping of Muslims ordering halal food.
Rather like money-laundering rules which harass an individual opening a bank account while dictators funnel stolen billions, governments grant themselves a massive opt-out from data privacy rules which stop a small business processing personal details in a seemingly innocuous operation.
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