In a report titled " Threatening the Open Society: Comparing Anti-terror Policies and Strategies in the U.S. and Europe" and released on 13 December 2005, Privacy International compared the anti-terrorism approaches in the U.S. with those in Europe. The report finds that on every policy involving mass surveillance of its citizens, the EU is prepared to go well beyond what the U.S. Government finds acceptable, and violates the privacy of citizens.

The report is highlighting the differences between EU and US in terms of access to communications data, retention of communications transactions data, data profiling and data mining, access to passenger reservation files and biometric registration and is concluding that in each case the EU is implementing surveillance powers well beyond those in U.S., and with far

In November 23, the anti-terrorist draft law proposed by the Ministry on Internal Affairs of France, Nicolas Sarzoky was voted by a large majority of the deputies of the National Assembly. The law facilitates the surveillance of communications allowing the police to obtain communication data from telephone operators, Internet Services Providers, Internet cafes. ( see EDRI-gram 3.18)

In December, the Senate voted also (202 for and 122 against) the law, even though it was harder than expected. Several members of the socialist and communist groups sent the law to the Constitutional Council considering that this law gives a too high power to the Internal Affairs taking at the same time the issue out of the hands of the judges.

Adopted in an emergency procedure, this law comes after a series of other

In Slovenia the number of installed surveillance video cameras on the roads is increasing rapidly. Apart from the CCTV systems on sections of so called "smart motorways" - which enable real-time monitoring of important traffic parameters and the informing of drivers via traffic portals - a large number of surveillance video cameras is installed on the whole Slovenian motorway network.

Article 74 of Slovenian Personal Data Protection Act requires that "a public or private sector person that conducts video surveillance must publish a notice to that effect. Such notice must be visible and plainly made public in a manner that enables individuals to acquaint themselves with its implementation at the latest when the video surveillance begins."

DARS (Motorway company in the Republic of Slovenia) has published such notices on toll collection booths. However, there are many sections (so called "open sections" and "half-open sections") of motorways on which drivers do not have to cross toll collection station in order to use the motorway. The use of such sections is free of charge. These sections are also equipped with video surveillance systems, but the drivers have no opportunity to get informed that they are entering the zone of video surveillance.

Like France, Denmark is also working on a new round of anti-terrorism measures, to be presented to Parliament in the spring of 2006. The proposals are quite far reaching and encompass a range of intrusions into citizens' digital privacy.

Among the most notorious proposals are: - a recommendation to let the authorities monitor the entire spectrum of telecommunications taking place within a delimited geographical area such as an apartment complex; - to allow intelligence services to request any information stored in any government database about any citizen without it being part of an ongoing investigation; - the introduction of mandatory screening of airline passenger lists by intelligence services; - to oblige all operators of services for electronic communications to implement technical measures to enable the authorities to wiretap any given communication at short notice.

The French government has decided to apply the urgency procedure to a new anti-terrorism draft law, with only one reading by each Chamber. The draft law was already passed by the National Assembly (French Lower House) on 29 November 2005 and will be examined by the French Senate in late December or early January 2006. The proposal creates increasing powers for the police and the intelligence services, thus undermining the protection of formal judicial procedures.

The law will extend the use of video-surveillance, authorising private parties to install CCTV cameras in public places "likely to be exposed to terrorist acts", and in places open to the public when they are "particularly exposed to risks of aggression or theft". Obviously, this covers almost any public or privately-owned place, including shops. In case of emergency, CCTV cameras may be installed prior to any authorisation.

The Greek public prosecution service has filed an appeal on 11 October 2005 at the highest administrative court of Greece against a decision by the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (DPA) that a new large high-tech CCTV system in Athens can only be used to monitor traffic.

The Greek DPA decided that the CCTV cameras could only be used to watch congested roads. The ministry of public prosecution service argues that the DPA's decision is "unconstitutional, against the European Convention of Human Rights and illegal since national safety and public order rank higher than the protection of privacy", according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

The Greek DPA has put many restrictions on the use of the system which consists of camera's, microphones and video analysis software. "Using the system and utilising the data collected through the system and recorded on it for any other reason is forbidden, including discovering offences, other than those related to regulating circulation." The usage of CCTV on "low traffic roads, squares, parks, pedestrian zones and citizens' assembly places (i.e. theatre entrances)" is not allowed.

The sixth edition of Swiss Big Brother Awards ceremony was held in Zurich's Rote Fabrik on 29 October 2005. The Swiss jury received 100 nominations in four categories: government, business, workplace and the special life-time achievement award. The financial services branch of Swiss Post, Postfinance, was awarded the business award for the illegal transfer of bank transaction data to the United States. The transfer became apparent after a Swiss man tried to transfer an amount in US dollars to a Cuban travel agency based in Switzerland. Both bank accounts were registered in Zurich. Although the man assumed the transfer was purely domestic it turned out that Postfinance uses its US partner Western Union for all transactions in US dollars. The man was notified that the US Department of the Treasury had confiscated his money because of the US embargo against Cuba. Postfinance advised him to send a protest to the US authorities in order to get his money back. So much for the Swiss bank secrecy.

In the series Information Technology & Law, the Dutch University of Tilburg has published a volume on camera surveillance and workplace privacy, which includes 11 country reports. The European countries covered by the report are: the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Hungary and Italy.

The editors argue that Europeans, similar to the US, have a 'reasonable expectation of privacy'. But is this right codified in national law or perhaps granted by case law? When it comes to workfloor privacy, there is no specific national legislation in any of the examined EU countries. Though data protection authorities have drafted useful codes of conduct, employers seem to have an advantage when a case comes to court. "The overall picture is that the lack of legislation has a negative effect on