EU/US : E-MAIL SPY PROGRAMME WILL STAY WITH OBAMA'S NEW REFORMS.

The changes in US intelligence gathering policies that US President Barack Obama unveiled, on 17 January, are unlikely to placate the data privacy advocates in Europe. The overhaul leaves largely intact the programme that whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in summer 2013, which gives National Security Agency (NSA) agents access to the e-mails of millions of ordinary EU citizens. This programme is "very valuable," a White House official insisted, while adding that there "has not been any indications of abuse" of it so far by intelligence officials. Obama did offer some morsels to his transatlantic allies. Responding to the disclosures that the NSA bugged German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, he promised that in future he would "pick up the phone and call" leaders in such situations. "Unless there is a compelling national security purpose, we will not monitor the communications of heads of state of our close friends and officials," he said. A White House official clarified that "dozens" of heads of state and government would be covered by this change. As for the regular citizens, while the US will keep its capability to spy on them, Obama said it would not use it "for the purpose of indiscriminately reviewing the e-mails or phone calls of ordinary folks."

The president maintained that he was taking "an unprecedented step of extending certain protections that we have for the American people to people overseas". Specifically, the White House is saying that non-US citizens will henceforth enjoy the same protections that Americans enjoy as regards how long their personal data can be held and for what purpose these can be used. But neither Obama nor his officials made any reference to granting a key demand being made by senior EU officials and lawmakers: that EU citizens be granted the right to petition US courts if their privacy rights are violated. The White House has also promised to make more extensive and effective use of mutual legal assistance treaties in order to share with other allied governments useful intelligence it gathers. And it has told the telecommunications providers that they will be allowed to disclose to the public more information...