14 DAY TRIAL // The United States Department of Justice and the European Union are finally working together to hasten the data protection negotiations so they can eventually reach a deal resulting in the protection of the privacy of regular citizens.
The issue is that much more important now that it was revealed the NSA and other intelligence services that the American agency works with had been engaging in spying activities consisting in part of phone and Internet metadata collections.
According to a newly issued statement signed by the US Attorney General Eric Holder and the European Commission’s Vice-President Vivienne Redding, the two hoped to reach a “meaningful and comprehensive” agreement in the next few months, setting the deadline for spring 2014.
While it’s currently unclear what type of data the deal will cover, it is expected that bulk collection of data, such as the one that’s been going on, will be limited to specific purposes.
“Our meeting also addressed data protection, and issues related to alleged activities of U.S. intelligence agencies. We together recognize that this has led to regrettable tensions in the transatlantic relationship which we seek to lessen. In order to protect all our citizens, it is of the utmost importance to address these issues by restoring trust and reinforcing our cooperation on justice and home affairs issues,” the statement reads.
The two officials also said that the agreement would act as a basis to facilitate transfers of data in the context of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters “by ensuring a high level of personal data protection for US and EU citizens.”
What exactly this will mean for regular Internet users across the European Union remains to be seen, but it’s not like laws and rules kept the US spies away before, so they’ll probably just be a little more careful with whom they hire.