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
