US demands air travellers' data

All passengers flying to the US from Britain will have personal information, including credit card details, handed over to the American authorities before they set foot on US soil, under a deal agreed yesterday.

The information a passenger submits to airline computers when buying a ticket - the passenger name record (PNR) - will be freely available to customs, immigration and other agencies in the US, where there are no data protection laws.

This includes basic details a traveller is obliged to give the airline such as full name, itinerary and contact phone number, but also a wealth of personal information.

The deal was struck between the European commission and America and is binding on all British airlines.

Despite fears that the American demand clashed with European data protection laws, the commission complied after the US authorities had threatened to stop flights to America.

David Henderson, spokesman for the European Airlines Association, explained: "The PNR has certain mandatory fields, but it also has a host of optional fields - special meal request, 'passenger only speaks French', method of payment, and if payment is by credit card, the card number.

"There is no real limit to what it can contain. It could say 'this VIP is chairman of such-and-such a corporation'."

The agreement bypasses European safeguards on the use of personal data, which require states to make clear for what purpose private information is being held and to whom it can be passed on, and give citizens a right of appeal.

US government agencies will have electronic access to the details before planes arrive. The measures are aimed primarily at preventing and combating terrorism but will also be used to investigate fraud and smuggling.

The deal for sharing passenger information was agreed between the US deputy customs commissioner, Douglas Browning, and commission officials in Brussels. The requirement will begin on March 5, though a formal arrangement to share data still has to be approved by EU governments and the European parliament.

Under US border security legislation passed last year airlines are required to make available all passengers' details including their birthdate, citizenship, gender, passport number, country of residence and address in the US.

Tony Bunyan, editor of the civil liberties group State watch, said: "Why should people hold information on us if we've done nothing wrong? This could be used against people wanting to go to a political demonstration.

"Someone who is up to no good is going to find a way around it by having a false identity."

Simon Davies, director of the independent watchdog Privacy International, warned there was wide scope for abuse of personal information. "This is a backroom deal. The information once in the hands of the US will leak like a sieve.

"Anybody who is of a particular ethnic origin could be routinely suspect, anybody who is caught up in an intelligence sweep, or law enforcement data matching exercise, could find themselves subject to US law without any hope of appeal or representation."

US customs did not respond to inquiries yesterday.