Brussels, 03/08/2010 (Agence Europe) - After the German data protection authority, it is now the turn of the French data protection authority, the CNIL, to express scepticism regarding the new Swift agreement on the transfer of banking data to the United States for the purposes of counter terrorism. Although the agreement took effect on 1 August, and despite the additional guarantees made, the CNIL is dubious about the effectiveness of measures taken and considers that there are still several reasons for concern. It takes the view that the massive transfer of data will still be possible once Swift is not technically able to identify and produce specific data to meet American requests. The choice of Europol as a filtering authority leaves one perplex, the CNIL states, as, although one cannot dispute its competence, its mandate does not cover the control of personal data communication to third countries. The CNIL remains dubious about the fact that later transfers will not benefit from additional guarantees, especially relating to the retention time of data, or the restriction of further processing beyond the objectives for which data was initially collected. Finally, the CNIL also challenges the “uncertain role” given to personal data protection authorities. In the same spirit, during its July session, the group of European CNILs (G29) reaffirmed that it remained highly vigilant regarding this dossier for the same reasons. Nonetheless, the CNIL and the G29 hope to be able to influence the European Commission during the drafting of guidelines concerning the joint review and the role played by Europol in the context of its mission to filter US requests. The German federal commissioner for data protection, Peter Schaar, recently expressed criticism on the same agreement (EUROPE 10192). (B.C./transl.jl)