LOL, Big Brother comes to the EU to snoop and sniff. I'm surprised the Europeans went for this deal.
WASHINGTON - U.S. and European officials signed an agreement Friday for sharing information on airline passengers.
The agreement, which takes effect immediately and is to last 3 1/2 years, gives U.S. authorities access to information about passengers on flights flying to or from the 25 European Union countries. The information will be checked against U.S. databases to determine if any travelers are terrorist threats.
The data ? called passenger name records ? include credit card numbers and contact information such as phone numbers and addresses.
The agreement also allows the U.S. government to use the data as part of an anti-terrorism program that would use personal information to assign threat levels to all airline passengers.
The program, called the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, has been delayed because some U.S. airlines refuse to turn over passenger data for testing. Several airlines ? including Northwest, JetBlue and American ? have been criticized for sharing such data with the government in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks without the knowledge of passengers.
U.S. officials said in March they would issue a security directive "in a few months" that would force airlines to turn over the data.
WASHINGTON - U.S. and European officials signed an agreement Friday for sharing information on airline passengers.
The agreement, which takes effect immediately and is to last 3 1/2 years, gives U.S. authorities access to information about passengers on flights flying to or from the 25 European Union countries. The information will be checked against U.S. databases to determine if any travelers are terrorist threats.
The data ? called passenger name records ? include credit card numbers and contact information such as phone numbers and addresses.
The agreement also allows the U.S. government to use the data as part of an anti-terrorism program that would use personal information to assign threat levels to all airline passengers.
The program, called the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, has been delayed because some U.S. airlines refuse to turn over passenger data for testing. Several airlines ? including Northwest, JetBlue and American ? have been criticized for sharing such data with the government in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks without the knowledge of passengers.
U.S. officials said in March they would issue a security directive "in a few months" that would force airlines to turn over the data.
all in the guise of fighting terrorism
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