The war on privacy | Economist.com

THE demands of security frequently square up against the desire for personal liberty. Most recently, on May 30th, the weighty matter seemed to rest on the scales of the European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court. At issue was an existing European Union agreement to provide American officials with many personal details of airline passengers who cross the Atlantic. The Americans want the data for the sake of public safety. But some European politicians complain that the demands are so great they might even break strict European privacy laws. In fact, the court objected to the transfer of data on a legal point and did not consider, in this instance, the issue of passengers’ privacy rights.

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