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EU-USA: European Parliament Study: The US legal system on data protection in the field of law enforcement. Safeguards, rights and remedies for EU citizens
04 June 2015
See the full text:
The US legal system on data protection in the field of law enforcement. Safeguards, rights and remedies
for EU citizens (pdf) Key findings include:
"With the exception of FISA electronic surveillance orders, the data protection guarantees afforded to non-US persons are minimal. The stated intent of PPD-28 [Presidential Policy Directive 28] is to provide for stronger personal data protection for non-US persons, but it is difficult to come to any conclusions at this point in time on what effect it will have...
As David Kris puts it, PPD-28 could either be a “new paradigm of transparency, privacy, and internationalism in US intelligence” or a “collection of fairly modest changes, largely cosmetic in nature, that were designed to placate critics in the United States and abroad.....
..... Another question raised by this overview is the lack of legal limits in US law on the sharing of personal data between intelligence and law enforcement officials..... the law confers broad authority to transfer personal data collected through intelligence methods to law enforcement agencies, regardless of the type of criminal offense that is suspected.... Unlike EU law, US law does not contain a general prohibition on transfers of personal data to jurisdictions without adequate data protection guarantees....
there are at least two important mechanisms that can be used in the bilateral agreements under negotiation to improve the rights of EU citizens.... The first is carefully drafted purpose, use, and sharing provisions that limit personal data processing to certain types of crimes...The second type of guarantee is oversight and redress mechanisms for EU citizens that can operate in conjunction with those currently in place under US law....
Although internal oversight bodies like Inspectors General and agency privacy offices lack the independence of European DPAs, they are tasked with enforcing civil liberties and have the capacity to administer ombudsman-like complaints systems for those who allege that their privacy rights have been violated. Ensuring that such an ombudsman process exists in all significant law enforcement agencies, expressly acknowledging a right to participate for EU citizens, and allowing European DPAs to intervene on the behalf of EU citizens would improve significantly legal oversight of privacy rights." [emphasis added]
See also:
Executive Summary (EASFJ, link)