Government surveillance: Turmoil and division in the EU and US

[Commentary] Huge battles have broken out on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the terms and extent of government surveillance over citizens and organizations in the fight against terrorism. In the United States, Congress is deeply divided over legislation either to extend or curb the National Security Agency’s domestic and international surveillance activities. And with a June 1 deadline looming over current NSA legal authority in these areas, a US court of appeals last week further muddied the waters when it declared “illegal” the NSA’s sweeping metadata program. In Europe, there is a cacophony of voices and actions, with individual states such as France and Germany moving in opposite directions in their responses to the challenges. The French government has been developing surveillance legislation for over two years, but the horrific Charlie Hebdo massacre galvanized the effort to produce concrete action. On May 5, the lower house of the French Assembly passed a new law granting wide-ranging new authority to French intelligence agencies, largely unburdened with administrative or judicial oversight and review. Under the new law, the government would be allowed to tap phone calls, read e-mails, conduct bulk collection and analyze data, as well as force Internet providers to comply with requests to sift through subscribers’ communications.

It is inconceivable that Germany would enact legislation such as that which passed in France. Taken together, the contrasting details of events in Germany and France give a preview of a future where European states will not act in unison over government surveillance, and indeed may act across purposes. This stands in great contrast to the developing story in the United States, where, one way or another, Congress will adopt over the next month a unified federal position, either by default or through issuing a new mandate as current legislative authority over domestic surveillance lapses.

[Claude Barfield is a former consultant to the Office of the US Trade Representative]