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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.
Something tells me, that U.S. might have more information about E.U. citizens and stuff, than E.U. governments have.
If you want the data, you'll have to come get them like the thieving false friends that you are.
I take it you don't work for GCHQ
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
The same resolution also addresses the betrayal by the Brits.
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.
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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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.
The U.S. and the Brits were violating the 11th commandment: "Don't get caught!" So far, it's only an unproven allegation that for instance the Germans are spying on the U.S.. The U.S., by urgently trying to get hold of Edward Snowden, were publically admitting to violate the law in most other countries ("most other", because I can't rule out that there is a country that officially allows spying on its own citizens by foreign powers).
And France. http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/frankreich656.html
And that "austrian" couple that got sentenced to 5 years this tuesday for spying for Russia.
Those last 3 weeks feel like a friggin James-Bond-Cold-War-Era-Spy-novel.
And I've not decided if it would be honesty or stupidity if we find out that our three letter agencys were busy with something else but spying on enemies and allies alike. (and foreigners and citizens alike)
bickerdyke
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 ?
As if the Europeans don't do the same thing to everyone else. Good grief.
Well, in retaliation, US can stop sending the Passenger Name Records to EU.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
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
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.
PNR's are not really the problem as, in part, they tend to be distributed internationally anyway as airlines need to know what seats they have available. Minimum case is which seats are taken. More often flight #, date, who is in what seat and passport # / food preference (required for multi leg flights)
America requires Advance Passenger Information which requires even visa exempt travellers to effectively apply for a visa 48 or so hours before their flight. The amount of information far exceeds a normal PNR although most of it is attached to the PNR. This is after the first round of restrictions that required the PNR's to be sent before take off.
Is a new and improved version. Spying your population, or individual diplomats/politicians? That is so last century. Now the target of the spying is the entire world population. Is about scale, compare to tip you in the shoulder with hitting you with a hammer in the head. Over certain scale, you are doing something different.
Where do you get the idea that "spying" is illegal?
Because for instance in Germany, there is Paragraph 99 StGB:
Paragraph 99
Geheimdienstliche Agententätigkeit
(1) Wer
(2) In besonders schweren Fällen ist die Strafe Freiheitsstrafe von einem Jahr bis zu zehn Jahren. Ein besonders schwerer Fall liegt in der Regel vor, wenn der Täter Tatsachen, Gegenstände oder Erkenntnisse, die von einer amtlichen Stelle oder auf deren Veranlassung geheimgehalten werden, mitteilt oder liefert und wenn er
(3) Paragraph 98 Abs. 2 gilt entsprechend.
Translation:
Intelligence agents activity
(1) Who
or a fine, if the act is not described in paragraph 94 or paragraph 96, Section 1, Paragraph 97a or in paragraph 97b in conjunction with Section 94 or Section 96, paragraph 1.
(2) In especially serious cases the punishment shall be imprisonment from one year to ten years. A particularly serious case is usually when the offender delivers facts, objects or knowledge which are kept secret by an official agency or at the instigation of, or notifies and delivers them while
(3) Section 98 para 2 shall apply accordingly.
Sorry, it might be look silly to you, but in Germany, it is actually illegal to collect data about persons in a database, if the persons can be identified by the data in the database, without prior consent by the persons in question. As I never agreed to the NSA to collect data about me, any database the NSA has that contains data which is sufficient to identify me, is illegal. That's German law, and each person within the NSA or one of its service provider that has helped to create the databases containing information about is a criminal according to German law.
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.
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 :)
This. I can predict that nothing will happen because of that resolution.
Since the EU parliament does not have the power to propose EU directives, it keeps itself busy with non binding resolutions. EU institutions are a democracy masquerade, and it sometimes get ridiculous, when that its so called parliament vote non binding resolutions to criticize the lack of democracy everywhere in the world.