The head of Switzerland's data protection commission says the United States' war on terror is undermining personal privacy. Hanspeter Thür calls for tighter controls on the campaign against terrorism and for more money to safeguard individual rights. According to him, the Bush administration is pursuing a repressive policy with little regard for data protection.

The unusually outspoken comments are contained in a new report to mark the tenth anniversary of Switzerland's data protection commission. In particular, Thür cites USA requirements for airlines flying to the USA to supply personal details of all passengers, including their religion, dietary preferences and credit card numbers to US customs. The mandatory transfer of PNR-data is forcing Swiss airline to break Switzerland's own laws on data protection, Thür says.

Data protection chief criticizes US (01.07.2003)
http://www.swissinfo.ch/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=399629...