Personal Privacy is at risk as the EU ponders new laws, which if introduced, would in part mimic the hastily enacted and controversial US Patriot Act.
The Guardian leader broached the subject of counter-terrorism earlier this week in Security Blankets.
Today the EU Heads of State have been discussing measures that others are calling Draconian.
EDRI who is running the Campaign against the illegal transfer of European travellers' data to the USA summed up some of the proposed measures as follows:
- Mandatory retention of all traffic data from cell phones and other forms of electronic communication.
- Enhanced access to data not produced for law enforcement purposes.
- Ability to use European PNR (passenger data) for other law enforcement purposes, inline with the US requests and diametrically opposite to current EU law.
- The addition of a mandatory fingerprint to the biometric data on EU passports other travel documents.
The EU proposal certainly covers several valid counter-terrorism measures, but in the above points it overreaches the objective in the same manner as the controversial Patriot Act.
The efficacy of some of these measures in catching criminals or terrorists remains far from proven; furthermore they reverberate like an Orwellian nightmare.
Even something as simple as a fingerprint must be considered in the light of the status quo. In many European countries, fingerprinting is exclusively associated with criminal actions with which the vast majority cannot identify.
Focus is vital and whilst fighting terrorism is an admirable objective, one should not curtail the personal freedom of the innocent individual.
