NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union are near
a deal on letting law enforcement and security agencies obtain private
information like credit card transactions and travel histories about
people on the other side of the Atlantic, The New York Times re****ted
on Saturday.
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The newspaper, which obtained an internal re****t on the potential
agreement, said it would amount to a diplomatic breakthrough for U.S.
counterterrorism officials after a history of cla****ng with the EU
over demands for personal data.
It was unclear when the agreement could be completed, the Times said,
citing officials, but the Bush administration wants to resolve the
issues before leaving office in January and is hoping for an agreement
that would not require congressional approval.
Negotiators, meeting since February 2007, have mostly worked out draft
language for 12 major issues at the heart of a "binding international
agreement," according to the re****t. Among other things, the pact
would make clear that European governments and companies could
lawfully exchange personal information with the United States.
A major unresolved issue is whether residents of EU countries would be
able to sue the U.S. government over its handling of their personal
data, the Times said. U.S. law does not allow foreigners to sue the
U.S. government for damages in such instances, the Times said.
The talks resulted from conflicts between the United States and Europe
over information-sharing after the September 11 attacks. The Bush
administration had demanded access to passenger data held by airlines
flying out of Europe and by a consortium, known as Swift, which tracks
global bank transfers. Several EU countries objected, citing privacy
laws.
U.S. and EU officials hope to avoid future confrontations "by finding
common ground on privacy and by agreeing not to impose conflicting
obligations on private companies," the Times quoted Stewart Baker,
assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department, as
saying.
"Globalization means that more and more companies are going to get
caught between U.S. and European law," said Baker, who is involved in
the talks.
Some European officials expressed concern at the prospective
agreement's ramifications.
"I am very worried that once this will be adopted, it will serve as a
pretext to freely share our personal data with anyone, so I want it to
be very clear about exactly what it means and how it will work," said
Sophia in't Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament and
privacy rights advocate.
Negotiators are trying to work out minimum privacy rights standards,
such as limiting access to information to "authorized individuals with
an identified purpose" for seeing it, the Times said.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080628/tpl-uk-security-usa-eu-81f3b62.html
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