In name of counter-terrorism people will be filed every time they will fly
by Emanuele Bonini
In name of security personal data and privacy are over. The European Parliament backed the proposal for a Passenger Name Records (PNR) directive, which will apply to all extra-EU flights with the possibility for Member States to extend the new provisions at internal level for intra-EU flights. In a vote today the Plenary approved the text by 461 votes to 179, with 9 abstentions. According to new bill Member states will have to set up specific «Passenger Information Units» (PIUs) to manage the PNR data collected by air carriers. All the information will have to be retained for a period of five years, but after six months the data will be «masked out» (i.e., stripped of the elements, such as name, address and contact details that may lead to the identification of individuals). PIUs will be responsible for collecting, storing and processing PNR data, for transferring them to the competent authorities and for exchanging them with the PIUs of other member states and with Europol. The directive states that such transfers shall only be made «on a case-by-case basis» and exclusively for the specific purposes of «preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting terrorist offences or serious crime».
The idea behind the European PNR is to protect the European Union from terrorist threats. According to legislators, the PNR will make possible tracking people, helping to avoid criminal activities. The PNR was strongly supported by France after the 11/13 Paris attack, but other players pushed in order to have this legislation in place. Now the Passenger Name Records is in place, Europe will be able to «reduce security gaps», stated the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, expressing what is a general opinion.
Everybody, in Brussels as in all the other capital cities, share the idea the PNR will solve part of the problem although this tool appears as controversial. The principle of retain the detail of a flight for a five year period means that all data of every single flight will be stored fo five years. In practice, a person travelling more than one time every five years - as it happens today - will be filed for ever. Already in December 2015 the European Data Protection Supervisor warned about this controversial nature of PNR, considered «the first large-scale and indiscriminate collection of personal data in the history of the Union», with the final result that «millions of non-suspect passengers would potentially be affected by the EU PNR proposal» as it will happen. Despite all, even if the new European legislation foresees that «all processing of PNR data should be logged or documented», the truth is privacy has been sacrificed in name of security and this sacrifice will be in vain. In fact according to European Data Protection Supervisor a lack of information or ways of collecting data, such as an EU PNR scheme «were not key factors in preventing the terrorist attacks carried out» by European citizens in 2015. Therefore the PNR is useless, considering also «there are a number of existing counter-terrorism measures that can be better used».
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In name of security personal data and privacy are over. The European Parliament backed the proposal for a Passenger Name Records (PNR) directive, which will apply to all extra-EU flights with the possibility for Member States to extend the new provisions at internal level for intra-EU flights. In a vote today the Plenary approved the text by 461 votes to 179, with 9 abstentions. According to new bill Member states will have to set up specific «Passenger Information Units» (PIUs) to manage the PNR data collected by air carriers. All the information will have to be retained for a period of five years, but after six months the data will be «masked out» (i.e., stripped of the elements, such as name, address and contact details that may lead to the identification of individuals). PIUs will be responsible for collecting, storing and processing PNR data, for transferring them to the competent authorities and for exchanging them with the PIUs of other member states and with Europol. The directive states that such transfers shall only be made «on a case-by-case basis» and exclusively for the specific purposes of «preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting terrorist offences or serious crime».
The idea behind the European PNR is to protect the European Union from terrorist threats. According to legislators, the PNR will make possible tracking people, helping to avoid criminal activities. The PNR was strongly supported by France after the 11/13 Paris attack, but other players pushed in order to have this legislation in place. Now the Passenger Name Records is in place, Europe will be able to «reduce security gaps», stated the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, expressing what is a general opinion.
Everybody, in Brussels as in all the other capital cities, share the idea the PNR will solve part of the problem although this tool appears as controversial. The principle of retain the detail of a flight for a five year period means that all data of every single flight will be stored fo five years. In practice, a person travelling more than one time every five years - as it happens today - will be filed for ever. Already in December 2015 the European Data Protection Supervisor warned about this controversial nature of PNR, considered «the first large-scale and indiscriminate collection of personal data in the history of the Union», with the final result that «millions of non-suspect passengers would potentially be affected by the EU PNR proposal» as it will happen. Despite all, even if the new European legislation foresees that «all processing of PNR data should be logged or documented», the truth is privacy has been sacrificed in name of security and this sacrifice will be in vain. In fact according to European Data Protection Supervisor a lack of information or ways of collecting data, such as an EU PNR scheme «were not key factors in preventing the terrorist attacks carried out» by European citizens in 2015. Therefore the PNR is useless, considering also «there are a number of existing counter-terrorism measures that can be better used».
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