PNR passenger data agreements

European home affairs ministers today adopted the EU-Australia passenger data (PNR) agreement, as well as discussing similar agreements with the US and Canada. The Greens have criticised these agreements as they are disproportionate and in conflict with EU privacy rules. Commenting on the outcome of the council, Green home affairs spokesperson Jan Philipp Albrecht said:

"The new EU-Australia passenger data agreement is in conflict with EU data protection rules and fundamental legal principles across Europe. Storing the private data of EU citizens for extended periods (1) is not only disproportionate, it is in conflict with numerous court rulings in Europe, including from the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, there is also scant evidence to suggest it helps tackle terrorism.

"The concerns raised by the European Parliament have clearly not been addressed under this agreement. On top of the excessive timeframe for storing data, there is no clarity on how this data can be used, despite ongoing concerns about its use for profiling. As a result, the Australian authorities can subject travelers to intrusive checks and even travel bans without any initial suspicion, simply because they match a profile. This practice undermines basic human rights and must be clearly ruled out. For these reasons, the Greens will push to have this agreement rejected in the European Parliament."

(1) The EU-Australia agreement proposes storing private data of airline passengers for five and a half years.