European Parliament agrees to send airline passenger data to US

The European Parliament on Thursday approved a controversial data transfer agreement with the U.S. that had sharply divided legislators.

The bilateral PNR (passenger name register) agreement requires European airlines to pass on passenger information, including name, contact details, payment data, itinerary, email and phone numbers, to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Under the new agreement, PNR data will be "depersonalized" after six months and would be moved into a “dormant database" after five years. However the information would still be held for a further 15 years before being fully "anonymized".

The PNR data will be stored in the U.S.'s Automated Targeting System (ATS). ATS is used to improve the collection, use, analysis, and dissemination of information that is gathered for the primary purpose of targeting, identifying, and preventing potential terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the U.S.