U.S. and EU officials are meeting today in Spain on data-sharing issues that the U.S. contends are essential to fighting terrorism but that the EU views as violating privacy and civil liberties. The Associated Press reports that the EU plans to add new data protection guarantees to a bank data-sharing deal with the U.S., including a ban on transferring bulk data and requirements that data be held no longer than five years. EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding will also soon decide changes to a second counterterrorism cooperation deal allowing Europe and the U.S. to swap details on airplane passengers, the report states. The EU will discuss that deal on April 23.
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