The European Parliament recently approved by a 409 to 226 vote an agreement that sets various conditions on the transfer of European Union air passengers’ personal data to authorities in the United States to help prevent terrorism and transnational crime.
The EU-U.S. Passenger Name Record (PNR) Agreement will replace a provisional agreement in place since 2007 and allows U.S. authorities to keep PNR data in an active database for up to five years. After that five years are up, the data will be moved to a “dormant database” for up to 10 years, with stricter access requirements for U.S. officials, the EU said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses the PNR data for comparison against terrorist watchlists and other criminal and immigration databases. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he was pleased about the agreement, which also requires airlines to share their passengers’ data with DHS 96 hours in advance of their flights to the United States versus the current 72 hours.
“The new agreement protects individual privacy but will still prevent dangerous people from traveling here,” Lieberman said in a statement. “I’m grateful DHS was able to persuade our European partners to do the right thing and strengthen aviation security.”
After data has been in the dormant database for up to 10 years, it will be “anonymized” by deleting all information that could serve to identify the passenger.
The PNR data, which is collected by air carriers during the reservation process, includes names, addresses, credit card details and seat numbers of air passengers.