Airport protests against data transfer to USA

EDRI and its partners held successful actions on 20 May at Schiphol
(Amsterdam), Zaventem (Brussels) and Vienna airport.

At all three airports EDRI members have provided airline passengers with
important information about the transfer of their personal data to US
authorities. Passengers were given a letter they can send to the national
Data Protection Authority in their country to request an investigation of
the illegal transfer of their personal data.

The action in Amsterdam was done by Bits of Freedom with Kathalijne
Buitenweg (member of the European parliament) and Marijke Vos and Jan de
Wit (members of the Dutch parliament). In Brussels Kathalijne Buitenweg and
Marco Cappato (both members of the European parliament) informed
passengers. In Vienna passengers were given information and letters by
Public Netbase.

The two most important Dutch news channels had items about the action,
stressing the pressure on airlines to give full access to their databases
or else risk loosing their landing rights in the US. Dutch airline KLM
admitted to have opened their passenger databases to American law
enforcement officers. The Dutch Data Protection Authority send a
representative to observe the action and comment to the gathered press.

EDRI-members from Denmark and Finland found out their airlines (SAS and
Finnair) had not yet succumbed to American pressure, and refuse to open
their databases to US Customs.

In Switzerland, the Internet User Group sent out a press release and
prepared a flyer and a letter for complaints and inquiries.

EDRI campaign against the transfer of passenger data
http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?funktion=campaigns

Pictures from the Schiphol action:
http://www.p7.nl/gallery/view_album.pcgi?set_albumName=album13

Report on the Vienna action (in German)
http://www.t0.or.at/t0/projects/edri/

Swiss press release and flyer (in German)
http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/index.shtml.de