Brussels, 20/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - The “Article 29” working party of national data protection authorities (known as “WP29”) involved in transatlantic research following the revelations that the United States is spying on Europe will carry out its own investigation.
In a letter sent on 13 August to EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, the chair of WP29, Jacob Kohnstamm, says “the WP29 considers it is its duty to also assess independently to what extent the protection provided by EU data protection legislation is at risk and possibly breached and what the consequences of PRISM and related programs may be for the privacy of our citizens' personal data”.
The WP29 wants details about the information really collected - and the scale of it - by the US surveillance services and whether information is also collected in Europe. It wants to know whether information simply transiting through the United States (through communications systems) is also collected. The working party wants to know whether the US programmes comply with international and European law, particularly the Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime. It also wants to examine the options for non-Americans whose freedom of movement is restricted to appeal against allegations made against them by US surveillance services. (MB/transl.fl)