US To Get EU Private Citizen Data 290
An anonymous reader writes "In a case of 'all your data are belong to us,' the US government is close to coming to an agreement with the EU that allows it to get private citizen data on EU citizens to 'look for suspicious activity.' So, now we know what step three is: set up a security agency in the US to resell otherwise unavailable data."
Re:Reciprocity (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Registration required? (Score:5, Informative)
Some bugmenot accounts [bugmenot.com]
Re:Inaccurate summary (Score:5, Informative)
I RTFA.
I did.
The Times does not say that the EU is going to hand over private information to US authorities.
Actually,
"The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information â" like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits â" about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean."
to me, means exactly that.
Re:Fabulous (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Inaccurate summary (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Fabulous (Score:5, Informative)
Just what I would have wanted my unelected EMPs to do on my behalf.
The EMP's, who are actually directly elected, have nothing to do with this agreement (and if you'd read the article, you'd see they are more critical of it than anyone else).
It's being negotiated by the Commission with a mandate of the EU Council of Ministers (who will later still have to, and probably will, approve it). The EU Council of Ministers consists of the ministers from all national governments (different ministers depending on the subject being discussed). You know, those ministers who always approve unpopular measures when they're in the Council and then later at home blame the EU for having to implement those same measures in national law.
Re:Inaccurate summary (Score:3, Informative)
As I understand it, that is one point they still have to agree on:
"The negotiators are trying to agree on minimum standards to protect privacy rights, such as limiting access to the information to âoeauthorized individuals with an identified purposeâ for looking at it. If a governmentâ(TM)s policies are âoeeffectiveâ in meeting all standards, any transfer of personal data to that government would be presumed lawful."
But that is just a technical point they have to discuss. The main point of "sharing data" is still valid.
Re:on behalf of Europe (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, they're the only EU body that is democratically elected [wikipedia.org]! If you refused to vote in the 2004 EP elections, that's another matter; next year you'll have a chance to remedy that [wikipedia.org].
(And of course the Lisbon treaty was supposed to give the EP more power, which would have increased democracy in the EU. Too bad.)
Re:Reciprocity (Score:4, Informative)
Did you miss this bit of that page?
"Own initiative reports are drafted by individual MEPs and are not proposals for EU laws."
Re:EU requests private US citizen data (Score:4, Informative)
The masses are too apathetic to do anything
Actually, when the masses have actually been asked in a referendum, they have generally rejected the various EU constitution/superstate treaties. It's just that this time around with the Lisbon treaty, only one government has so far had the courage to go to its people and ask (well, actually their constitution required it). Despite widespread criticism, other leaders have ratified the treaty againt popular opinion. The masses aren't apathetic, they just aren't being given the choice, in one of the most flagrant violations of democracy in recent history.
And for the avoidance of doubt, we don't get to elect the people with real power in the EU framework, who are apparently behind this particular affront to privacy, either.
Facts, people, facts ;-) (Score:2, Informative)
That should obviously be: ...since there's more of eu.
According to Wikipedia
Re:I mean, let's be honest with each other. (Score:3, Informative)
But lately, so does the Eurotrash thumbing their nose at the people that actually fought for THEIR freedom and got them their rights to actually have the rights to talk shit to their own and our government.
No Europeans fought for their freedom? Which is it, Charles de Gaulle [wikipedia.org] wasn't European or didn't fight for freedom. The Swing Kids [wikipedia.org] weren't Germans and didn't fight the NAZIs? And there was no Warsaw Uprising [warsawuprising.com].
Falcon
Re:Fabulous (Score:2, Informative)
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event â" like a new Pearl Harbor"
(in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century [wikipedia.org])
Something like 9/11, maybe?