As insomniacs will know, a deal has been done amongst member states on the wording on the reheated EU Constitution, now branded more modestly as a Reform Treaty.
We don’t have the details of exactly what is agreed to hand yet. But reports of some of the novel inclusions which were under discussion (see the EU Observer’s Personal data protection under threat in EU treaty draft) are not very heartening.
If the changes to European Data Protection principles proceed in the manner suggested in that report , the governments of the EU member states would have overturned the principle of keeping their citizens’ private data private so that they could send it abroad to ‘third parties’ (read: the US) without being checked by the Parliament or, crucially, the European Court of Justice.
This is clearly a reaction to the ECJ’s ruling on the EU air passenger data transfers to US in 2006.
I’m a EUsy Newsy Floozie.
1 Comment
Arse. Big flabby flatulent ARSE!
Does anyone else find it ironic that while governments are increasing the need for checks, balances and controls over the transfer, accuracy, quality and use of information in business via Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley and the like that EU Governments are now removing the checks and balances about transfer of sensitive personal information?
Perhaps it is a conspiracy against the Irish Computer Society who recently launched an excellent certification programme for Data Protection? Maybe they just hate legal-minded bloggers.
Particularly as the only State in the US that took the risk of personal data being released remotely seriously (California) has recently rolled back on that legal provision…
Sweet Sacred Heart of Divine Jesus (as my grandmother used to say when particularly vexed or dismayed).