White House extends data privacy protections to non-US citizens

• 'Big Data' report touches on privacy concerns raised by EU
• Obama due to meet with Germany's Angela Merkel on Friday

Dan Roberts in Washington

The White House has ordered that US data privacy protections will soon be extended to non-Americans in an announcement that seems timed to take some of the heat out of Friday's meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Though separate from the administration's earlier review of intelligence activities including the bugging of her phone, the report, led by senior adviser John Podesta, touches on many of the associated privacy concerns raised by the European Union in ongoing trade negotiations.

Its release, which came with no notice just hours before Merkel was due to land in Washington, also coincides with a visit by European Commission president José Manuel Barroso to Silicon Valley.

The report on “Big Data and Privacy” makes six recommendations for action, although most involve calling on Congress to pass additional legislation or review existing guidelines.

But in conference call with reporters Podesta said that work to apply the 1974 Privacy Act to non-US persons would begin immediately and could be completed within six to 12 months.

Officials will seek to make sure US government departments and companies treat data on foreigners with the same privacy safeguards “where practicable, or to establish alternative privacy policies that apply appropriate and meaningful protections to personal information regardless of a person's nationality”.

Podesta said this was separate from Obama's reforms of US intelligence activities overseas, but was a “meaningful” and “significant undertaking”.

He denied it was hypocritical of the White House to publish the report in light of the disclosures of foreign surveillance by Edward Snowden and said Obama had ordered the review to run in parallel with intelligence reforms.

Its recommendations, which also include preventing companies from using big data to discriminate against individuals, were cautiously welcomed by privacy campaigners who said they were disappointed it did not go further.

“The White House should be commended for reviewing issues related to 'Big Data,' including acknowledging the discriminatory role this technology can play,” said Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy.

“However, the report failed to identify the commercial surveillance complex that has been put in place by Google, Facebook, and many other data-driven businesses … Indeed, we are concerned that the report may give a green light to expanded data collection, where the principle is 'collect first and worry about privacy and consumer protection later'."

One European Union official said it would be pressing to find out whether foreigners now had rights of legal redress for breaches of data privacy carried out by US companies or government agencies.

Podesta argued the overall benefits of technological advances in the field of big data outweighed potential harms so long as laws kept pace.

“The big data revolution presents incredible opportunities in virtually every sector of the economy and every corner of society,” he said.

“But big data raises serious questions, too, about how we protect our privacy and other values in a world where data collection is increasingly ubiquitous and where analysis is conducted at speeds approaching real time.”

Earlier, White House spokesman Jay Carney acknowledged that concerns about US surveillance and privacy were likely to come up during Friday's meeting with Merkel but said he was confident they would not interfere with broader discussions on crunch issues such as the Ukraine crisis.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/white-house-extends-data-privacy-protections