Naturally most European citizens do not even realize that this is going on... The EU Commission has now caved in to the US request to transfer PNR passenger data, despite contravening current EU privacy law. I discussed this recently Personal Privacy at risk as EU ponders new laws.
"Privacy International has released a report, Inadequate Adequacy, to show how badly the Commission 'negotiated' with the US. The true interests of the EU was to gain 'reciprocity' from the Americans, while establishing a European surveillance system for general customs and immigration purposes." Link to the PDF report: A Failure to Negotiate: European Commission Sells Privacy Law to Lowest Bidder.
Interestingly, US citizens privacy is controlled by US law and EU citizens privacy by EU law, but once EU data arrives in the US it will be under US law, so the privacy evaporates. If this sets a precedence, as indicated in the report, then the EU will be handing EU citizens' personal data to almost any country.
We - the taxpayers - will be paying for this and I think the time have come to stop playing ball and protest to such self-serving wishes which are completely undermining our personal privacy.
If anybody is still in any doubt how insecure databases are, even later in their life, then they are urged to glance at this security scenario.
Could somebody explain why the US immigration needs to know a traveler's private telephone number, email address and whether she prefers to order a vegetarian meal on some flights? Also, how is that going to inform them of any traveler's intentions? Some might be business travelers who order a special meal to get served faster, so they can get a good sleep during a long flight. Where's the logic?
Some say that dietary data will be filtered before it reaches the U.S. Ha! Believe it if you wish.
What's the point of heightened border security if nobody visits the US anymore? The US Secretary of State reports a 30% reduction in visitors to the USA over the last 30 months. 30%!
In my estimation this is likely to decimate the visitor statistics even more.
