Brussels, 12/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - At a hearing in Brussels on Monday 11 November during a further meeting of the civil liberties committee at the European Parliament regarding the surveillance activity of the US National Security Agency (NSA), representatives of Google, Facebook and Microsoft denied there had been any deliberate transfer of Europeans' personal data to the US authorities, or that those authorities had been given unfettered access to their servers.
While, in October, several newspapers reported there had been possible intrusion into the internal servers of those companies, Nicklas Lundblad, who is in charge of Google public relations, denied there had been any direct access or access through the back door to the servers of his company.
The above representatives also denied having any knowledge of the PRISM programme, which triggered the scandal in June this year. “We do not know PRISM, we do not take part in it, and we do not give the government access to our data”, said Dorothée Belz, representing Microsoft. She also assured Jan-Philipp Albrecht (Greens/EFA, Germany) that the about internet companies did their very best to comply with European legislative provisions (currently the 1995 directive on personal data) but that the new recasting of the regulation, and especially the possible article on international transfers of personal data, could lead to real conflict and to legal insecurity that “we will not be able to resolve”. The committee on civil liberties took a stance on the EU's obligation to have a sound legal base with a third country in order to transfer data relating to Europeans outside the EU.
The groups also gave further details regarding the number of government requests concerning certain users. Richard Allan, who represents Facebook, explained that between 11,000 and 12,000 such requests had been made by the American government during the first half of 2013, calling for information on nearly 21,000 accounts. Those requests, however, also included requests made on behalf of European countries, the same official said.
Jim Sensenbrenner, of the US Congress, told MEPs that the irregularities committed by the NSA had been carried out without Congress' approval. “I hope that we have learned our lesson and that oversight will be a lot more vigorous”, he said. Sensenbrenner chairs the sub-committee of the US Congress on crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations. Together with Senator Patrick Leahy, he was at the origin of the USA Freedom Act on freedom of information, intended to end the NSA's bulk collection of American citizens' communications records by amending the US Patriot Act. (SP/transl.jl)