The European Parliament will have what is believed to be its’ final vote on EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) in Strasbourg next Thursday, April 14.
For years, the Parliament has tried to stop registration of sensitive personal information related to air travel. But after the latest terrorist attacks, pressure has mounted, and everything suggests that the dossier will be approved during next week’s session.
From the European Parliaments webpage:
Passenger Name Record (PNR) data is information provided by passengers and collected by air carriers during reservation and check-in procedures. Non-carrier economic operators, such as travel agencies and tour operators, sell package tours making use of charter flights for which they also collect and process PNR data from their customers.
PNR data include several different types of information, such as travel dates, travel itinerary, ticket information, contact details, baggage information and payment information.
Parliamentarians have had serious concerns about the impact of PNR on fundamental rights and data protection.
Now he PNR dossier is said to be voted together with the EU Data Protection package – at least allowing some coordinated approach.
Formally, EU PNR is about information regarding passengers arriving on flights from non-EU countries. But there is no doubt this will also apply to intra-EU flights.
So, governments will store information about all of people’s air travel, in detail. This is to be added to information about e.g. all of our telecommunications and our bank transactions. The grip tightens.
(It could have been even worse. Earlier on in the process, the U.K. put forward the idea that all our train travel, car rentals, and hotel stays should also be registered. But I guess they decided to take this one step at a time.)
If nothing short of a miracle occurs, next Thursday the EU will take its’ next step towards Big Brotherism.
/ HAX
Links:
• EP: Final votes on PNR and data protection package »
• News on PNR from the EP (16 July 2015) »
• EP: Much Ado About PNR (19 Jan. 2015 »
• EP: EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) proposal: an overview (14 Dec. 2015) »
• MEPs refuse to vote on PNR before Council strengthens data protection (9 March 2016) »
Just yesterday we saw a long article about a person who had 8 different identities and how the government and authorities could do nothing about it.
These kinds of laws are more or less without merit, it feels like a quick and dirty solution as always.