EU proposes recording all data on airline passengers, including their meals
To help combat terrorism, the United Kingdom hopes to join a European Union information sharing database; under the proposed program, dubbed the Passenger Name Record directive, authorities will collect detailed information on airline passengers including their phone number and how they paid for their ticket as well as a credit card details and billing addresses; a passenger’s information will be stored up to five years and after the first thirty days the details will be made anonymous; any European Union member state can search through the database as it conducts counter-terrorism investigations; the proposal has yet to be approved and has generated its fair share of critics
To help combat terrorism, the United Kingdom hopes to join a European Union information sharing database which collects an airline passenger’s name, address, payment details, and even the contents of their meal.
Under the proposed program, dubbed the Passenger Name Record directive, authorities will collect detailed information on airline passengers including their phone number and how they paid for their ticket as well as a credit card details and billing addresses. In total, airlines will begin recording at least nineteen additional pieces of data.
Damian Green, the U.K. immigration minister said, “Opting in to this directive is good for our safety, good for our security and good for our citizens.”
A passenger’s information will be stored up to five years and after the first thirty days the details will be made anonymous.
Any European Union member state can search through the database as it conducts counter-terrorism investigations. In addition, each country would be required to establish a Passenger Information Unit to log data on every person who enters and exits the country for another European Union state.
The proposal has yet to be approved and has generated its fair share of critics.
Bill Cash, the chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said, “There is certain concern about opting in on the hoof because these important negotiations are still going on. We will keep them closely under scrutiny.”
In addition, Stephen Booth, the research director of Open Europe, criticized the plan as sacrificing too much authority to the European Union.
“Despite their tough rhetoric in opposition, Conservative ministers have handed over crime and justice powers to Brussels at an alarming rate,” he said.
Booth added, “It is completely undemocratic that the Government can choose to hand over British citizens’ personal data to police forces all across Europe without so much as a vote in Parliament.”
In defense of the plan, Green said, “This directive is not about handing over responsibility to a European institution. It’s about member states collecting and processing Passenger Name Record data on travel under an agreed legal framework to help protect citizens from harm.”
