European Commission vice president Franco Frattini has written to the U.S. government demanding an explanation of its Automated Targeting System, which clandestinely has been screening information on airline passengers for the past four years.
ATS analyzes the passenger name records of travelers flying into and out of the United States in order to assess the security threat they pose. ATS appears to flout several provisions in an agreement the United States has with the European Union through which American authorities access the PNRs of E.U. citizens. These include making use of so-called "sensitive data," such as meal preferences; the right to redress if information about individuals proves to be incorrect; and the duration of data storage, which is 40 years for ATS as opposed to 3.5 years in the E.U.-U.S. agreement.
"The information published by the Department of Homeland Security reveals significant differences between the way in which PNR data are handled within the Automated Targeting System on the one hand and the stricter regime for European PNR data according to the Undertakings given by the DHS," according to Frattini in the statement, published Wednesday. "The Council Presidency and Commission have sent today a letter to the U.S. Government to request formal confirmation that the way E.U. PNR data are handled in the ATS is the one described in the Undertakings."
Frattini's statement stops short of explicit condemnation of the U.S. government. However, after years of negotiation with the U.S. that drew intense criticism from the European Parliament for conceding too much to the DHS, the vice president's exasperation is evident. "I have always taken the position that travelers must be informed when their PNR data may be transferred to competent authorities of third countries," the statement said. "The DHS Undertakings expressly acknowledge this. We need an international agreement with the support of the public on both sides of the Atlantic and of the democratic representatives of the peoples."
The present E.U.-U.S. PNR deal expires in July 2007. Frattini said the European Union would continue to offer a high level of data protection to E.U. citizens.
Sophie in t Veld, the European Parliament rapporteur on the E.U.-U.S. PNR deal, spoke out more forcefully against ATS. "We cannot accept this excessive appetite for personal data without any kind of protection against mistakes and abuse by public authorities," she said.
The DHS only revealed at the end of November that ATS has been screening airline passengers on a test basis since 2002. The DHS has extended the deadline for public comment until Dec. 29
(BTNonline, Dec. 6).