[IP] EU Court Blocks Air Passenger Data -- more info
Begin forwarded message:
From: Joel Reidenberg <reidenberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 30, 2006 1:06:33 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: EU Court Blocks Air Passenger Data
Dave,
Yesterday, the European Court of Justice threw out the 2004 agreement
between the US Dept. of Homeland Security and the Council of the EU
that allowed the US government to gain access to European airline
passenger data. The Court ruled that the Council could not declare
that the promises made by the US provided 'adequate' privacy because
the Council had no legal authority under the Directive on data
privacy to address public security and state security matters. The
Court never reached the substantive issues and did not address
whether the protections promised by the US would be sufficient under
EU standards. Nevertheless, the Court allowed the PNR transfers to
continue until September 30, 2006 as a transition period.
The decision presents a few scenarios:
- the US and the EU could negotiate a data privacy treaty (unlikely)
- airlines in Europe will scramble to find a way to comply with the
DHS mandate and the US government will need to negotiate individually
with each national Data Protection Authority in Europe (possible, but
unattractive)
- airlines and US government will search for the most flexible data
protection agency to authorize transfers and then route and manage
the PNR through a central headquarters location where the
organization can be qualified as a "controller" in that DPA's
country (most likely). This might work because, under EU law, the
law of the place where the controller is located governs treatment of
the data. The European Court's decision indicates that this location
would have exclusive jurisdiction to permit the data flow to the
US. If the US government then secures an agreement from that local
data protection agency, the PNR could be sent to the US without
impediment from other EU countries.
Regards,
Joel
Recent papers:
Technology and Internet Jurisdiction, 153 Univ. Penn. L. Rev. 1951
(2005) http://ssrn.com/abstract=691501
Opportunities and Obstacles for the Simplification of International
Data Privacy Rules, Proc. of 27th International Conf. of Data
Protection Commissioners (Sept. 2005)
http://www.privacyconference2005.org/fileadmin/PDF/reidenberg.pdf
**********************************************
Joel R. Reidenberg
Professor of Law and Founding Director
Fordham Information Law & Policy Center
Fordham University School of Law
140 West 62nd Street
New York, NY 10023
Tel: 212-636-6843
Fax: 212-636-6899
Email: reidenberg@xxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://reidenberg.home.sprynet.com
**********************************************
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/