Alexander Hanff

Privacy Advocate
Poland
Jos Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission
1049 Brussels, Belgium
Monday, 10 June 2013

Urgent Privacy Alert Further Evidence

Dear President Barroso,
Further to my letter on Friday 7th June 2013, calling for the immediate revocation of US Safe
Harbour status, today further evidence has become available that US corporations are
passing information to the US Government about European citizens even when that data
is held in European data centres.
In an interview with German media group WirtschaftsWoche1, Google have confirmed that
they have handed over data to a US Intelligence agency which was hosted in Europe and
was linked to European citizens, under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order and
the PATRIOT Act.
This is in addition to a previous admission of the same by Microsoft in 2011.2
I have tried to bring this matter to the attention of the European Commission at multiple
events in Brussels over the past 5 years, calling for the revocation of the US Safe Harbour
status, as it is quite literally impossible for any corporation either hosting data in the United
States or incorporated in the United States, to meet the guarantees required under the Data
Protection Directive for Safe Harbour.
With the new Data Protection Regulation draft currently going through the European
Parliament, it is a matter of urgency that the scope of US (and other third countries)
surveillance laws is addressed.
In 2012 the European Commission released their final revision of the draft Data Protection
Regulation in which a key clause addressing foreign surveillance of European citizens which
was present in previous drafts3, had been removed (Article 42) it is arguable that the
clause would not have protected European citizens data from foreign surveillance anyway,
but at least there was a recognition of the problem, which doesnt exist in the current draft
being voted on by the European Parliament.
1

http://www.wiwo.de/politik/ausland/datenspeicherung-google-server-in-europa-vor-us-regierung-nichtsicher/5156042.html
2
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/microsoft-admits-patriot-act-can-access-eu-based-clouddata/11225
3
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/dec/eu-com-draft-dp-reg-inter-service-consultation.pdf

In a report commissioned by the European Parliament earlier this year, written by highly
qualified and experienced professionals and academics, again the issues surrounding the US
PATRIOT Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (FISAAA or FAA)
were highlighted.4
So far these concerns seem to always fall on deaf ears, but it is time the European
Commission took the necessary action to protect the fundamental and constitutional rights
of European citizens. It is unconscionable that such rights can be so easily ignored by third
countries which through trade with and the trust of European citizens obtain vast wealth
and profits for the stewardship of their personal communications and data.
Furthermore, given the significant lack of competition within Europe (with a few limited
exceptions such as Ixquick5) for these services it is critical that there is strong support for
those fundamental and constitutional rights.
By revoking the Safe Harbour status of the United States and banning US technology
companies from operating in Europe until such time as the US Government start to
recognise and uphold European citizens rights, the Commission would open the door for
innovation within Europe.
Services which could compete with the likes of Google, Facebook, Yahoo Mail, Skype and
Twitter, would inevitably be created resulting in a significant boost of the European
economy. European owned and situated cloud infrastructure would grow at an astonishing
rate leading to significant investment in the economy and the physical Internet
infrastructure within Europe which would be of benefit to all European citizens and
organisations.
When will the European Commission act to stimulate growth of the European economy and
protect the fundamental and constitutional rights of European citizens? It is time to say no
to foreign surveillance of European citizens and it is long past time to loosen the grip of the
United States over the infrastructure of the information society of which we are now all
active participants.
Sincerely,

Alexander Hanff
Privacy Advocate

4
5

http://www.alexanderhanff.com/sites/all/themes/skeletontheme/documents/external/EST79050.pdf
http://www.ixquick.com