Your private data is now open source...

The U.S. has just signed an agreement with Europe to allow all governments concerned handy access to the personal data -- including travel itineraries, credit card statements and internet browsing habits -- of their respective citizens (read article).

According to the NY Times "Europe generally has more stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer such information." That statement doesn't say a great deal for our own privacy protections.

Unfettered access to private data is an open invitation to the abuse of power. Without protections (such as subpoenas), governments routinely will monitor and initimidate those whose political beliefs differ.

For example, under Reagan, sympathizers with Central American war/torture refugees were subjected to IRS audits as a means of intimidation. (Not half as bad an outcome as that faced by the refugees, who were often returned to their homelands to be summarily executed and/or imprisoned.)

Further consider how private data can be used to coerce the individual. The Stasi in East Germany, for example, used private data to blackmail huge numbers of its citizens into spying against each other. This proved a potent means of quelling public dissent.

It is bad enough our own government has access to far too much personal information about its citizens .. do we really want our government to share the same with foreign governments, unelected by us?

The NY Times further reports that: "the two sides are still at odds on several other matters, including whether European citizens should be able to sue the United States government over its handling of their personal data." In other words, somehow Europe -- and not the United States -- has ended up being the standard-bearer for civil liberty protections. Of course this agreement endangers civil liberties on both sides of the Atlantic.