U.S. Official: E.U., U.S. Making Progress On Data Privacy Rift
The United States and European Commission are well on the way to agreeing on a lasting deal on passenger data privacy around the end of this year, a U.S. State Department official told the Association of Corporate Travel Executives global conference in Dublin yesterday.
"Despite what you see in the press, there is definitely a convergence of views," John Fennerty, head of the political economic section of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin told a seminar on data privacy. "We want to get this sorted by the end of the year. It may spill over into next year but not for very long."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been accessing airline passenger name records of travelers to, through and from the United States since February, claiming the information is helping it in the fight against terrorism. However, the accessing of PNRs violates several European Union laws on data confidentiality and security. The European Commission agreed in February that the United States could access the data on a temporary basis that is likely to run out at the end of this year. It granted the temporary arrangement in the hope a compromise on conditions of the data access could be found.
Fennerty said the United States had moved on some key issues. Originally, the European Commission did not want PNR data to be stored by the United States longer than three days, whereas the United States wanted 50 years. Negotiating positions now are down to three and seven years, respectively. The United States also has agreed not to access so-called "sensitive" data, such as dietary preferences and medical information. "It's largely irrelevant for screening purposes," Fennerty said. However, consensus still needs to be reached on the "serious crimes" for which data can be used to apprehend suspects. The United States also needs to convince the European Commission that the office of data privacy it intends to set up will be sufficiently independent because it will report to Congress.
On the equally controversial, second generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II, being planned for flights originating in the United States, Fennerty said: "My thoughts are let's take one crisis at a time. We are trying to resolve the E.U. issue first."