From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/23/ec_swift_ruling/

"The European Commission is set to call for an immediate halt on the
illegal transfer of financial information to the United States Treasury.

A draft final opinion obtained by The Register concludes that central banks
and local financial institutions that used the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunication) financial network had acted
illegally in allowing data about their clients' financial transacions to be
transfered to the Treasury. The US started issuing subpoenas in the course
of anti-terrorist investigations within weeks of the September 11 attacks
of 2001 - the financial institutions and their messaging network hid the
disclosures from citizens.

"The hidden, systematic, massive and long-term transfer of personal
data by SWIFT to the UST in a confidential, non-transparent and systematic
manner for years without effective legal grounds and without the
possibility of independent control by public data protection supervisory
authorities constitutes a violation of the fundamental European principles
as regards data protection and is not in accordance with Belgian and
European law," says the EC opinion.

The EC found that Europe's central banks, which oversee SWIFT's activities,
may lose the trust of the markets after failing to inform them that the
subpoenas were being made.

"The lack of compliance with data protection legislation may actually
hamper consumers' trust in their banks and thus might also effect the
financial stability of the payment system.""

"There was a "lack of transparency and adequate controls"
protecting the financial data SWIFT passed to the US Treasury," it
states. It bluntly says the transfers were neither proportional nor
necessary."

"It also outlines the European stance of a measured response to
terrorism against the zealous response of the US: "Any measures taken
in the fight against crime and terrorism should not and need not reduce
standards of protection of fundamental rights which characterise democratic
societies."

"A key element of the fight against terrorism involves ensuring the
preservation of the fundamental rights which are the basis of democratic
societies and the very values that those advocating the use of violence
seek to destroy," it concludes."

Adam

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