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EU Parliament Supports Suspending US Data Sharing
New submitter egladil writes "As seen previously here on Slashdot, the European Parliament was to vote on 'whether existing data sharing agreements between the two continents should be suspended, following allegations that U.S. intelligence spied on E.U. citizens.' With the votes now having been cast, the result is 483 in favor of the resolution and 98 against, while 65 abstained. The resolution in question in part called for the U.S. 'to suspend and review any laws and surveillance programs that "violate the fundamental right of E.U. citizens to privacy and data protection," as well as Europe's "sovereignty and jurisdiction."' It also decided that the E.U. should investigate the surveillance of E.U. citizens, and finally gave backing to the European Commision in case they should decide to suspend the data sharing deals currently in place with the U.S., such as the Passenger Name Record and Terrorist Finance Tracking Program agreements. The question now is whether the E.U. commision will go through with suspending these deals or not."
Well, it doesn't seem like much, but it's more than the american people have done in response.
Or maybe it's not MORE, but it's certainly more visible.
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
If you want the data, you'll have to come get them like the thieving false friends that you are.
Something tells me, that U.S. might have more information about E.U. citizens and stuff, than E.U. governments have.
I'm sure the NSA is quaking in its boots.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
As long as they share the data about the muzzies then all will be fine
They are just doing this to keep the people calm... the sharing will continue. Trusting politicians that lied once is like expecting a hungry lion that bit you once... not to bite you again.
I'll believe it's more than theater when they provide a home for Snowden.
is slim and none. It'd hardly be the first time the Parliament has voted for the right thing but the EC has said "well, we won't do that".
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I guess that's the end of that. The European Commission has a track record of giving a flying shit about voters and the parliament. It is just interested in keeping the money flowing and won't do anything that would create a hiccup with that.
Without getting ordered by the parliament at least three times in a row, they won't touch any of the agreements in question.
So the USA will let this change pass and not complain and bitch and moan about how it's all a terrible injustice and is necessary for the security of the state, right?
No, you'll officially whine and bitch and moan.
Because it IS a problem for you: you're not the daddy no more.
Why was sharing all that data with the USA OK in the `war on terror`?
Why suddenly, when the EU leaders and G20 are spied upon, as it occurs, is this sharing suspended?
Why was it OK to violate privacy of EU citizens because of US demands?
Why doesn't it occur in full yet that the USA are a totalitarian state and that they want to put their views onto the rest of the world?
Why doesn't the EU show willingness to harbour Snowden, Assange and Manning as a gesture of humanitarian nature?
Why doesn't anyone understand that it won't help the USA at all if they incarcerate Manning, Assange and Snowden? The leaking will continue, just with more caution.
A system put in place to spy on terrorists will only be legal to spy on the people it was supposed to protect.
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We've seen it what happened with Spain, Portugal, France or Italy in regard to Bolivian president.
It doesn't matter what your laws are. It doesn't matter what you say on TV.
It just takes one (1) phone call.
In substance it is meaningless...actions speak louder than words.
The EU is corrupt and party to these programs.
Hypocrites, all of them. They have their own intelligence gathering operations on the US and other countries, but they're feigning outrage.
FTA:
MEPs also voted to reject a number of amendments that specifically called for the suspension in Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) discussions.
Oh well. I was hoping some good would come of this and they'd at least suspend "free trade" talks.
... You should read first. I come here for facts not sensation news.
I don't know of any case of corporate espionage in which US government agencies were involved. If you do, please provide some examples.
In contrast, France and other European governments have clearly engaged in corporate espionage against US companies and shared that information with their private sectors (search the news).
The end of the World Wide Web as we know it. "I can no longer trust my neighbor with my telecommunications, ergo I will not allow telecommunications with my neighbor." Which means not only will people be cut off from events happening in the U.S. but the U.S. will be cut off from events happening in the rest of the world. Orwellian dystopia +1
Exactly. I daresay that's why this resolution passed so easily, like many similar ones at the UN - Everyone involved knows that nothing will come of it so it's politically costless, and perhaps can be translated into a nice mention in a newspaper back home.
Another link, so you can see who voted what:
http://www.votewatch.eu/en/us-nsa-surveillance-programme-surveillance-bodies-in-various-member-states-and-impact-on-eu-citizens-6.html
As I read previous comments, I, as a French, have a strange feeling of misunderstanding... What american people have to do with this ? Nothing. American government and intelligence agencies have all to do with it. We, europeans, know this perfectly. The american people is the first to be spied on. And so are the others.. Maybe, they could work this out together, couldn't they ?
Seconded, there was outrage that Bush had helped himself to SWIFT data, all the internal EU transaction data. Lots of commercial secrets, lots of chances to spy on EU people was handed over with that data.
So SWIFT moved the servers to Switzerland to protect us and quell the outrage. And USA asked the EU Commission for the data on EU bank transfers officially, "to catch terrorists".
Of course the only answer is 'no', it would be as ridiculous, as if the US gave us all *their* banking data so EU could check them for terrorists!
And yet Barosso of the EU Commission handed all our data over to the US saying it was the only way to check for terrorists.
Since when have terrorists been big bank transaction users? Terror attacks are cheap and terrorists use cash. It was just an excuse.
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Same with the 'safe harbor', companies can't ship data out of EU unless its to a country with the same level of privacy protections. US got a get-out of this law, called the "safe harbor". Why? Either the law applies or it doesn't, why should US companies be able to piss all over our privacy?
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Then we did SEPA (to replace SWIFT), it was driven by the Germans. I always believed we worked on it because the Germans didn't trust the EU Commission. SEPA data would be in Germany in Frankfurt. Germany doesn't accept any of these "give US all your data" agreements, not the 'Safe Harbor" not the data retention directives (which came from UK leader Tony 'Bush-Poodle' Blair).
SEPA will be compulsory next year, and this year we had those 'off shore banking' leaks to the newspapers which look like SWIFT data leaking.
Newspapers got the min-leaks, while US allies, like UK got the full data, a much bigger set of data that's large enough to cover every transaction, not just Caymen islands and other rich peoples bank accounts, but all internal and world transactions. That looks like the US was leaking our SWIFT data to its allies.
I guess the game there was to create the "money laundering" agenda, then UK to get SEPA on the excuse of anti-money laundering and UK hands USA all our internal bank data in secret again (was that the plan?). That's what I think they were aiming for with that leak.
The SWIFT data transfer needs to be ended now. EU bank transactions are EU commercial secrets, and not the business of a competing trading nation.
Safe Harbor needs to end now, any promises made have been broken, companies need to be liable for the data protection, if they can't protect it in US, move it to EU, hold it in an EU company and protect it from USA that way.
Flight passenger records, I would hope it's only flights that are going to the US, not other flights. Russia wants the same data, if you give USA more than the absolute minimum, then EU will end up sending Russia more than the absolute minimum too. e.g. Americans flying to Britain might be demanded by Russia if America get details of Russian flying to Italy.
So the data has to be only the flights that go to that country and no where else.
EU needs to get its privacy shit together. USA has more serious problems than privacy, when you can't even get to see the laws used to grab data on Americans and TV talking heads cover for the military, they have far more serious problems than just privacy. /rant
What a load of bullshit. Nobody is going to suspend a goddamned thing.
The US has been watching Europe and vice-versa...the only people that have been ignorant of any of these dealings are the public. Governments create one set of rules for the public and a whole 'nother set of secret rules for Governments...the leaks have only pointed out what most of us have already known. Nobody is going to "suspend" anything, they'll just restrict who has access to it until they can get their secrets under control again.
US Gov gave military intelligence collected data to Boeing on the contract negotiations that Airbus were at that time winning.
Airbus were dropped.
And especially the French representatives were shocked, SHOCKED, that the US is conducting spying operations against allies.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/14/news/14iht-spy_.html
Why, it's almost as unbelievable as if Israel was conducting spying operations against the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
To put this in perspective, note that the resolution that was passed is a non-binding one. "Twiddle, diddle and resolve"
"a resolution that would back the Commission should it wish to suspend data sharing agreements with the U.S."
Meaning: nothing is going to change.
Privacy is terrorism.
Problem: U.S. is spying on you.
Solution: Take away the one channel of data they did not have to spy for, thereby increasing the need for the U.S. to implement new spying...
Profit:??
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Overblown hysteria is our protection against our so-called leaders settling comfortably into the belief that they can get away with anything and then attempting something truly outrageous. Please study the history of the rise of Nazism in Germany for further reference.
According to this article, Britain and Sweden have vetoed EU plans to launch two working groups to look into the 'espionage debacle'.
All your ghosts are just false positives.
So they've voted against sharing data from the EU's citizens only when its exposed that the US wanted the same level of detail on the government(s) supposedly protecting the interests of those citizens? It might matter if the NSA/CIA wasn't already able to get most if not all of this data from their 'unofficial' channels, but I am afraid that train has left the station.
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
and impose trade sanctions ... oh wait, we dont export anything any more so just another mute point
The Europeans are telling the Americans: "WTF? Do you think we are buying your 'trade privacy for security' bullshit? You might con your own denizens with that steaming pile, but not us. Take your surveillance crap and go home." I suppose some of it has to do with the fact that clearly the heads of these governments are not terrorists, and yet are being spied on anyway, clearly giving underlining the fact that this spying isn't related to terrorism, but trade, policy and power. Its also a shitty thing to do. Friends don't go through each others sock and underwear drawers.
This is really a non-story. If /. ever came out of their Mom's basement they might be in danger...otherwise, not so much
I really don't see the point. What needs to happen is for the politicizations that knew and supported/allowed it to be publicly exposed and punished/shammed in some way that will follow them forever.
The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA's Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two "working groups" on the espionage debacle with the Americans.
Stick it to the bleeding Yanks.
http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception/stoa/ic2kreport.htm#Report
see 103
It does not matter whether Airbus bribed or not. What matters is the US used their spying capability for industrial espionage.
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! Prissy, prissy idiots who simply don't understand modern life. Good luck with the Arabs, EU. They're just as much out to get you as us so we can all live in a 7th century time warp.
Notice that the EU makes no mention of their member states spying against US citizens. So while it's morally and fundamentally wrong for the US to spy on Europeans, it is the patriotic duty of European nations to not just regularly spy on but to steal from US citizens for the sake of their national interests.
Finally my dear parliament decides to stick up to the US instead of just being pussies all the time. Now we just need to somehow kick out the stupid commission (or at least give the parliament directive powers) and the EU is on a good track :)
I mostly come here for the comedy these days. It's priceless to see all the American posters shout about how the EU does the same thing and all this voting and resolutions are just a farce to appease the populous.
Almost as if Americans are finding out for the first time that in fact most of their allies are far more free (as in speech) than they ever were, something that can only surprise a FOX news watching couch potato. And boy, are they annoyed with this realization!
Citation needed. Besides, you're failing to take into account that the Lisbon Treaty gave the Parliament much more power than before. And we're talking about the Parliament that threw out the software patents, and the same Parliament that threw out ACTA, the two things that Commission demanded and did not get, because, well, as an executive body, they are accountable to the Parliament. The cannot just damn well do as they please, at least not legally. The Parliament is who appoints the Commission, and the Parliament can also take 'em down.
No skin off the NSA's nose. They already have all the data the EU was going to share with them anyway! Bwahahahahaaaa!