Napolitano: US-EU data sharing is critical

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano decried July 8 what she said are "unrealistic" European Union conditions for greater data sharing with the United States.

In a discussion with Vice President of the European Commission Viviane Reding hosted by the Atlantic Council, Napolitano acknowledged advances in data sharing with European countries while also criticizing recent EU actions that could stem greater exchange of passenger name records.  

"In recent months the European Parliament has passed a resolution with a number of pre-conditions before it would consider ratifying our PNR agreement. Some of those provisions already are in place, such as a privacy impact assessment. Others, such as restrictions on data mining and watch list matching are, quite frankly, unrealistic," said Napolitano.

Napolitano also expressed concern about whether a data sharing agreement with Europe would require Congress to revise the Privacy Act in order to provide a statutory remedy for judicial redress than what currently exists--something she said would be very difficult to achieve.

Negotiating a data-collaboration framework will be challenging, admitted Napolitano. She said it can be accomplished by building upon the 12 shared data principles established by a "high-level contact group" in May 2008, the existing PNR agreements and mutual legal assistance treaties. Napolitano also noted an established history of information sharing between Europe and the United States, with no recorded misuse of data.

"We should not and cannot allow relatively minor legal or cultural differences--or misperceptions--to derail a security effort altogether," said Napolitano. "But the differences that remain should not be used to suggest that one nation values privacy more than another--or that different privacy laws or legal systems are incompatible."

Reding said she hopes to negotiate a data protection agreement with protection standards, obligations for data controllers and rights for data subjects. The agreement should have specific mechanisms to ensure the application of those standards, she added.

Just hours prior to the pair's discussion, the EU Parliament passed legislation that will allow the United States access to financial data from Swift, the international cooperative which handles international bank transactions and messaging. The arrangement permits U.S. monitoring of terrorist financing for security efforts in the United States and Europe.

"With this vote, the European Parliament has given the U.S. an advance in trust by setting a clear time limit for working out a general agreement on trans-Atlantic data protection," said Reding. "In the past I think there were too many talks and not so much political will. Now this has changed: There will be less talks, more political will and, well Janet, we'll get it done."

For more:
- listen to audio from the event
- read the BBC article on financial data sharing
- read about the 12 (broad) principles of EU-US data sharing in this European Voice article

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