As part of a new anti-terrorism campaign, the European Union’s top justice official has proposed a tougher security measures which seek to collect personal data on air passenger flying into the 27-nation union.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told MSNBC that “We cannot be complacent, we have to continue striking the right balance between being aware of the threat and taking adequate and proportionate measures, both at European and national level, to prevent it.”

Under the proposal, the airline carriers will collect 19 pieces of air passenger data during the arrival from non-EU countries and submit these to the member states who will store it for up to thirteen years.

The proposal is similiar to the controversial Passenger Name Record (PNR) system used by the US. However, the plan does not foresee a centralized EU database but instead suggest that each member state sets up its own unit for collecting and analyzing collected data.

Under the proposed plan data to be collected would include passenger’s name, address, phone number and email address, passport number, travel agent, credit card number, and history of changes in the flight schedule of the passenger.

The proposal would need the approval of the European Parliament and all the 27 EU member states. It has met opposition in some quarters, including some EU lawmakers and rights groups.

Tony Bunyan from UK liberties group Statewatch told Business Week that “This is yet another measure that places everyone under surveillance and makes everyone a suspect without any meaningful right to know how the data is used, how it is further processed and by whom”.

In addition, he said that “There is little evidence that the gathering of ‘mountain upon mountain’ of data on the activities of every person in the EU makes a significant contribution,” IHT writes.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 11:57 am under Uncategorized.

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