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The European Union on Wednesday asked the Homeland Security Department to clarify how its controversial traveler screening program is using and protecting information on European citizens, expressing concern that it could violate agreements between the U.S. and E.U. governments.

The international body is only the latest in a growing number of groups challenging the program, called the Automated Targeting System, since the department disclosed details last month that it screens travelers entering the country. The European Union is also seeking assurances the department is complying with previous agreements -- called undertakings -- when using the program to screen European citizens.

After years of delicate negotiations, the European Union agreed in October to give Homeland Security so-called Passenger Name Record data on European citizens flying to the United States. A PNR is a file of information that airlines create for every traveler, such as payment methods and meal preferences.

The U.S.-E.U. agreement included strong privacy protections that the European Union is now concerned may be jeopardized.

"The information published by the DHS reveals significant differences between the way in which PNR data are handled within the Automated Targeting System on the one hand and the stricter regime for European PNR data according to the undertakings given by the DHS," European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini said in a statement Wednesday.

The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union. "The Council presidency and Commission have sent today a letter to the U.S. government to request formal confirmation that the way E.U. PNR data [is] handled in the ATS is the one described in the undertakings," Frattini said.

Telmo Baltazar, European Commission counselor for justice and home affairs, said the U.S.-E.U. agreement states that PNR data should be deleted within four years. But Homeland Security said the Automated Targeting System can keep information on people for up to 40 years.

Baltazar indicated that Homeland Security's explanation of the Automated Targeting System could affect negotiations to renew the U.S.-E.U. agreement, which expires in July. "Everything in life affects everything," he said. "We are simply asking for clarity and confirmation ... Doubts have a tendency of creating more problems."

A Homeland Security spokesman said the department is "confident that we handle E.U. data in accord with our PNR agreement and undertakings."

He added: "The E.U. was also confident in our procedures, following a detailed review in conjunction with the E.U. last year. There have been several inaccurate media reports on the Automated Targeting System, so we understand why the E.U. would want clarification."

The spokesman pointed to a review done in 2005 by the department's privacy office on how European PNR data was being used and protected. According to that review, the department achieved full compliance with the representations in the undertakings and has put in place an extensive privacy program that includes employee training and procedural and technical controls.

The privacy office also had no reports of deliberate misuse of PNR information.

COMMENTS

• I find it fascinating that the government will maintain records on their own citizens longer then on foreigners. Forty years versus four. Interesting that we are more interested in offending Europeans then U.S. citizens. Has all of the senior staff in the government forgotten where they came from and whom they are protecting? I also find it fascinating that this government has no problem allowing commercial industries (airlines) to collect and no doubt will retain personal information. Information that is not the government’s or private industry’s business. What I eat, if I am sick, if I dislike the current administration, and/or if I am opposed to gun control is not anyone’s business but mine, per the Constitution! Why then, do government officials feel they have the right to this information? In the name of protecting us from terrorists. Yeah right! Yet we would never dream of profiling! No we search little 5-year-old girls and old ladies -- never an Arab! GovExec.com reader Posted December 15, 2006 1:11 PM
• I have an answer for the Europeans. If your name matches that of a terrorist or criminal, you will be referred for further immigration and customs screening, and either refused admission into the United States, or arrested! Unlike most of Europe, where terrorists are free to roam from country to country, we in the United States still believe in national sovereignty and border enforcement, in order to protect ourselves from those who seek to do us harm. You'd think that after 9/11, everyone in the world (except the bad guys) would also feel the same way. If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear. Case closed. GovExec.com reader Posted December 15, 2006 1:57 PM
• Tennis anyone? As everyone knows, you can't have much of a tennis match without an opponent lobbing your serve back over the net. Well, just how cooperative have the Europeans been lately re: shared intelligence? It seems to me that they didn't tell us about the planned liquid bomb attacks on planes until after the plot was foiled. Now, we have to worry about their citizens’ privacy as well as our own? The Islamic terrorists must be really chuckling over this new stupidity. GovExec.com reader Posted December 14, 2006 2:14 PM