Britons and other Europeans who fly to the US could have their credit-card transactions as well as e-mail messages inspected by US officials, a British newspaper reported yesterday.
Under a US-EU deal struck in October, the Daily Telegraph said passengers face having other transactions on their credit cards inspected by US authorities if they use the card to reserve flights.
Under the headline "license to snoop" on flying Britons, the daily added that passengers who provide an e-mail address to an airline could see other messages sent or received on that account studied by the US government.
The paper said the details were revealed in "undertakings" given by the US Department of Homeland Security to the EU and published by Britain's Department for Transport following a Freedom of Information request.
A department spokesman told the Telegraph: "Every airline is obliged to conform with these rules if they wish to continue flying. As part of the terms of carriage, it is made clear to passengers what these requirements are."
"The US government has given undertakings on how this data will be used and who will see it," he said.
However, Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human-rights group Liberty, was quoted as telling the newspaper she was horrified at the extent of the information made available.
"It is making the act of buying a ticket a gateway to a host of personal e-mail and financial information. While there are safeguards, it appears you would have to go to a US court to assert your rights," Chakrabarti said.
With the security clampdown that followed the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, Washington demanded that airlines yield full details about passengers before allowing them to land, the newspaper said.
However, EU governments threatened to impose heavy fines on the airlines for breaches of European data protection legislation.
In October, the EU agreed to remove the "bureaucratic hurdles" preventing airlines handing over such information after the US authorities threatened to bar European carriers. Washington meanwhile promised to "encourage" US airlines to make similar information available to EU governments rather than force them to do so, the newspaper said.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS