Data Protection Conflicts between the United States and the European Union in the War on Terror: Lessons Learned from the Existing System of Financial Information Exchange
In the middle of 2006, two significant issues, both involving privacy and specifically data protection, came to the forefront of U.S. efforts in the War on Terror. First, in May 2006, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) annulled an agreement between the United States and the European Union regarding the transfer of airline passenger information or passenger name records (PNR) from the European Union to the United States. The annulment of the PNR data transfer agreement by the ECJ reignited the debate as to whether the transfers violated E.U. data protection laws. The second major issue arose on June 24, 2006 when the New York Times uncovered a secret U.S. government financial record surveillance program called the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) Details of the secret TFTP immediately raised concerns of data protection violations both in the United States and in the European Union. Because terrorists reveal themselves to the international community only (1) when they travel abroad; or (2) when they transact abroad, both the PNR transfer and the TFTP represent noteworthy counter terrorism efforts by the United States. Clearly, however, the annulment of the PNR data transfer agreement and disclosure of the TFTP to the international community have strained relations between the European Union and the United States. The European Union and the United States will be hard pressed to improve relations unless the two governments can find common ground regarding the impact of their data protection policies on these two distinct problems. In order to find that common ground, this note recommends (1) that the United States terminate the TFTP and improve the existing system