GERMANY:GERMAN DATA protection experts have expressed concern over a bilateral data-sharing deal agreed in Berlin yesterday between the US and Germany.
The agreement gives investigators the ability to run automatic searches without special permission in each other's police database.
Investigators will be able to conduct searches of individuals suspected of terrorist activity using a suspect's name, date of birth, nationality, fingerprints and even DNA information.
If any matches are made in the "hit/no hit" system, a formal request can be lodged for access to further data.
"This is an important step in the effective fight against serious crime, especially international terrorism," said Mr Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's interior minister. He said the "hit/no hit" system would ease concerns at home about US investigators conducting data trawls through German databases.
US justice minister Michael Mukasey called the agreement an "important instrument" in the fight against terrorism.
The treaty still has to be signed - the corresponding legislation has yet to become German law - but already the German data protection commissioner in Berlin says the deal violates the country's traditional high privacy standards.
Mr Peter Schaar said the agreement was an unacceptable extension of the Preum Convention, signed by seven EU members in 2005, which allows the automatic exchange of police information.
"The extended exchange of information has been agreed without the US meeting German and EU data protection standards," said Mr Schaar on public radio. "Having my fingerprints taken at a rally here may be important to the German police but does the US have the right to access this data? I would say no."
German officials dismissed the concerns, saying the agreement met mutual data protection standards. "This is no pruning of rights, it just saves time on preliminary work," said German justice minister, Brigitte Zypries.
Meanwhile Estonia announced that it would ignore protests from the European Commission and sign a bilateral visa and air security deal with the United States today, the Baltic republic's president said.
Latvia is also due to sign an agreement today, its foreign ministry said, adding to a dispute between the European Commission and some new member states keen to get visa-free treatment in the US.