Analysis of proposed PNR Directive

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Canadian prevented from flying because name was on US no fly list

The Economist reports that that a British man was prevented from flying home from Canada because his name was on America’s no-fly list. Dawood Hepplewhite was not allowed to board his Air Transat flight from Toronto on February 13th when it was discovered that he was among the 8,000 to 10,000 people prohibited by the [...]

Two fundamental privacy problems with the SWIFT agreement and Europol’s role in it?

EUROPOL’s Joint Supervisory Body recently performed its first inspection at Europol regarding the TFTP Agreement, which entered into force in August 2010. The TFTP Agreement gave the JSB a new task – to monitor whether Europol respects the provisions of personal data protection principles in the TFTP Agreement when deciding on the admissibility of the [...]

EU Commission Proposes Mandatory Transfer of Passenger Name Records

The European Commission has proposed a Passenger Name Record Directive that would require airlines to provide EU Member States with data on passengers arriving from, or departing to, countries outside the EU. Under the proposal, copies of such PNR data held on an airline’s reservation system would be transferred to a dedicated “Passenger Information Unit” [...]

Freedom of expression and privacy risks across the ICT sector

The BSR report ‘Protecting Human RIghts in the digital age’ describes the evolving freedom of expression and privacy risks faced by information and communications technology (ICT) companies and how these risks can be more effectively mitigated by the industry.  It focuses on the issues for telecommunications services; cell phones and mobile devices; internet services; enterprise [...]

CoE Secretary General Speech on the right to privacy

In his speech the SG stressed the importance of new social media, but he said that they have ‘changed our understanding of privacy’. The fact is that the line between public life and private life is on the move, and if we do not act, this line will disappear. Today, privacy is challenged, more than [...]

Council of Europe: need for a global consideration of the human rights implications of biometrics

The CoE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is “increasingly concerned about the rapid and uncontrolled development of biometric technologies”. It stresses the need to strike an appropriate balance between security and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially the right to privacy. In its report, the Commitee says: Given that at [...]

Tightening links between the external and internal aspects of EU security

A note from the Hungarian EU presidency to the Standing Committee on operational cooperation on internal security (COSI) describes the desires of the Presidency to tighten the links between the external and internal aspects of EU security.  On the list is: * Enhancing the exchange of personal and strategic information and criminal intelligence between EU [...]

Russian Federation Invests in Enhanced Surveillance

On January 28, 2011, Russian media outlets reported that on January 11, 2011, the government had issued a resolution approving a two-year program of investing in high technology in the field of security. The program, which was recommended by the President’s Commission on Modernization and Technological Development, entrusts the FSB with the responsibility of spending [...]

New European Commission proposal on the use of PNR data in the fight against terrorism

The proposal aims to harmonise Member States’ provisions on obligations for air carriers, operating flights between a third country and the territory of at least one Member State, to transmit PNR data to the competent authorities for the purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting terrorist offences and serious crime. It does not require air [...]