Brussels, 14/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The PRISM surveillance programme, about which the Guardian and Washington Post published a whistle-blower's revelations on 7 June, is used to respond to foreign threats, more specifically non-Americans suspected of terrorist or cyber crimes. It does not transfer information en masse and is covered by authorisations from the US justice department and is monitored by the US Congress. Another recent scandal is around the activities of the US operator Verizon that supplies the intelligence services with a great deal of information about its subscribers, but Europeans are not targeted nor is the content of conversations or details about individuals as such of interest. It meets targeted objectives related to terrorism and large-scale crime, such as activity connected with nuclear material. These surveillance programmes do not allow the US government to listen in to telephone conversations, only giving access to metadata, information about telephones, for example. This is how, in Dublin, the US Justice Secretary, Eric Holder, tried to justify the activity of the US National Security Agency to his European partners. In a strongly-worded letter, Viviane Reding demanded that he give very clear explanations of the range and aim of the PRISM programme, a massive communications surveillance system using internet giants like Google, Facebook and AOL.
His European counterparts were eager to quiz Holder, who explained at a press conference that use of communications was only allowed when there is reasonable doubt and that the targeted information was analysed solely by a dedicated and specially trained team. His partial explanations, which failed to address all the issues raised by Reding, were relatively well received by the commissioner in Dublin. The EU and US have, however, agreed to set up a transatlantic group of experts to examine in more detail the scope and involvement of such programmes for Europeans. Cautiously commenting that she had not been given all the answers she wanted, particularly about the transatlantic data protection agreement she has been negotiating since 2011, Reding told Holder that it was important that action taken on the grounds of national security should not be to the detriment of European citizens' rights and should not destroy the confidence of European citizens in their governments and their governments' partner countries. Similar concerns were expressed by Commissioner Malmström, who said the best balance needed to be struck between security and potential restrictions on citizens' freedoms. (SP/transl.fl)