Policy Observatory
EU Commissioner Věra Jourová: "I am very pleased that today we have finalised negotiations with the US on high data protection standards for transatlantic law enforcement cooperation.
Robust cooperation between the EU and the US to fight crime and terrorism is crucial to keep Europeans safe. But all exchanges of personal data, such as criminal records, names or addresses, need to be governed by strong data protection rules. This is what the Umbrella Agreement will ensure."
The European Union and the United States have clinched a deal protecting personal data shared for law enforcement purposes such as terrorism investigations, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The two sides have been negotiating for four years over the so-called "umbrella agreement" that would protect personal data exchanged between police and judicial authorities in the course of investigations, as well as between companies and law enforcement authorities.
Privacy experts of austrian "AK Vorrat" published a handbook on evaluation of anti-terror laws in Austria.
In their presentation they claim that the expansion of public surveillance and missing checks and balances gives the impression that the state does not behave lawfully online and that this impression has effects like terrorism.
Hollande announced a set of measures to harden anti-terrorism laws, including changes to France's constitution. Hollande asked the parliament to vote before the end of the week to extend the state of emergency for three months, with provisions to facilitate administrative, rather than judiciary, searches and house arrests.
The articles of the constitution organizing the state of emergency and "full powers" for the president are "no longer suited to the current situation", he said, and proposed that authorities be allowed "adequate means to take exceptional measures", without having to have recourse to the state of emergency.
Hollande also said that terrorists with a double citizenship, "including those who were born French", should be stripped of their French citizenship.
On 16 February 2017, the European Parliament voted in favour of the EU Directive on combating terrorism. Weak, unclear, ambiguous wording in the Directive presents dangers for the rule of law, the right to privacy and freedom of opinion and expression of people in the European Union.
A few weeks ago, Access Now received a response from the European Commission regarding the organization's notification in November that Belgium’s plan for a Passenger Name Record (PNR) system breaches EU law. Since then the Belgian Parliament has adopted its proposed PNR law, despite the lack of evidence to show it will help stop crime or terrorism. This has set in motion what is essentially a rights-harming exercise in security theatre.