Transatlantic treaty threatens passenger privacy

THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS AGREED to link its immigration databases with those of the US in a plan that could result in the routine transatlantic exchange of
people's biometrics.

The deal could give the US detailed information about the details of the 300m people who cross EU borders every year. Their movements are recorded in a clutch of EU databases including the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the Visa Information System (VIS).

This will be linked with the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), details of which the US has not yet made public.

"ESTA will be applied consistently to all EU Member States and will be coordinated with the EU's future system," said the Council of the European Union in five paragraph statement about US and EU talks that led to the agreement yesterday.

This contrasted with an agreement struck between ambassadors of EU member states last week, which stated that the US would be given no such privilege.

There would be "no commitments as to access for the US to EU/EC data bases or information systems," it said.

But the US has been putting pressure on the EU to comply with its plans by undermining its authority with bilateral arrangements with individual member states. It do so with the Czech Republic in February.

The day before the US entered talks with the EU over its demands, it signed another two bilateral deals, with Estonia and Latvia.

According to a copy of the secret Czech agreement obtained by Statewatch, the US would take "identifying information that includes biographic and biometric data".

The data would be used to determine whether travellers posed a threat to US "security, security, law enforcement, and immigration interests".

They appear to have done this without quite knowing what they have signed up for.

Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement Wednesday: "DHS will announce complete details on how the authorization systems will work, and when they will begin, later this year".

The EU said it was waiting for the US to give it details of ESTA, but it thought it would have completed discussions over US data demands by June.

A spokeswoman for the Slovenian Presidency of the EU said that they had agreed to give the US access to the SIS and VIS databases.

Technocrats at the European Commission have proposed an ESTA-like system for Europe, though this has yet to win the backing of the Council or the Parliament.

The EC wants to build a system similar to that operated by the US, which builds up risk profiles of people, built on numerous data sources and assessments made by surveillance and behavioural technologies, that suggests who looks dodgy enough to be fingered by border guards. µ