The European Commission will slam U.S. mass surveillance...
The European Commission will slam U.S. mass surveillance activities but give the Obama administration time to address its concerns about the Safe Harbor data transfer agreement, the Financial Times reported Tuesday (http://on.ft.com/IkThwi). It made public excerpts from a leaked version…
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of a report due out Wednesday that it said showed internal EC divisions over how strongly worded the document should be, but that made clear that U.S. companies will have trouble doing business in the EU unless the U.S. stops spying. The report outlines several policy options for Safe Harbor: maintain the status quo; strengthen the system and launch a review of how it’s working; or suspend or revoke it, the FT said. “Given the weaknesses identified, the current implementation of Safe Harbor cannot be maintained,” the EC excerpt said. “As a matter of urgency, the Commission will engage with the US authorities to discuss the shortcomings identified,” it said. “Remedies should be identified by summer 2014 and implemented as soon as possible,” with a broader review of Safe Harbor to follow, it said. Among other things, the EC also wants a provision that would stop U.S. law enforcement agencies from accessing any data collected by U.S. tech companies unless they go through “formal channels,” the FT blog said. There’s also a demand that EU citizens be protected against spying in the same way Americans are, it said.