Watchdog Attacks US Swoop for Bank Secrets

The transatlantic conflict over privacy rights and international security continues as the leading European authority on data protection announced that a US financial information-sharing program abuses privacy rights “on a massive scale,” reports “The Guardian.” For the past six years, the US has collected names, account numbers and sums from European banking transactions through the Belgian-based company Swift. The once-covert operation, described by “The New York Times” in 2006, has come under heated fire from European authorities, who say the banking firm violated European Union data-protection laws. This program and others like it put multinational corporations in a bind: With EU and US law in direct conflict, it is impossible for a company that operates on both sides of the Atlantic to stay on the right side of the law. – YaleGlobal