http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,751262,00.htmlOnly with great reservations did the European Parliament agree last year to the SWIFT agreement with the United States. The agreement allows the transfer of data pertaining to European bank customers to US investigators in accordance with strict guidelines. But many provisions of those guidelines have been widely ignored.
One week ago, a critical report from the Europol Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) noted that the written requests received by Europol, the EU-wide law enforcement organization, from the US are too vague to decide on their validity. Yet despite the shortcomings, Europol has agreed to every request. The auditors complained this is making oversight of data privacy "impossible."
