EU reaches air data privacy agreement with US

A long-running spat between the US and Europe over privacy rights for transatlantic airline passengers has finally been concluded, with the EU opting to accept American demands.

The acrimonious discussions centred on a conflict over the personal details - everything from name and age to credit card details and itinerary - of passengers flying into the US. American authorities were adamant they needed to see the data to help them identify potential terrorists in the wake of the 11 September attacks, EU authorities were adamant handing the data over wasn't compatible with European data protection laws, which states that such data can't be handed over without passengers consent.

The US had been demanding that any transatlantic carrier give up their electronic passenger records within 15 minutes of take-off or face a fine of $6,000 per passenger and denial of landing rights. Several key European carriers complied with the demands despite the legal implications.

The final agreement has largely come down in the Americans' favour, but the EC said that it did manage to gain some concessions, although it had been opposing the agreement fiercely on grounds of citizens' right to privacy.

One such EU victory was the right to have some fields dropped from a passenger's data record, including their state of health and dietary preferences, which could be used to work out a traveller's religion; another was the amount of time the records can be held for - down from the proposed US limit of 50 years to three and a half.

The EC's take on the situation has been largely pragmatic, with representatives of the Commission taking the stance that the US has the right to control who crosses its borders and if travellers feel particularly strongly over the issue, they can choose not to visit the US.

The EC is now debating whether to demand a reciprocal agreement for access to US travellers' details.