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The United States
and European Union countries are discussing ways to improve the
speed and scope of sharing data in the wake of deadly militant
attacks on Paris, California and a Russian passenger plane.
"No nation can fight terrorism alone," Lynch said in a speech at
London's Chatham House think tank.
"Terrorists, like other criminals, count on the difficulties
that law enforcement agencies have in sharing information across
borders, difficulties that are magnified now that electronic
information may be stored in many different countries."
Lynch singled out a planned EU-wide data protection law for
particular criticism.
"It is certainly highly concerning to us that data privacy
legislation advancing in the European Parliament might further
restrict transatlantic information sharing," she said.
She said such a step "ignores the critical need for that
information sharing to fight terrorism and transnational crime,
but also overlooks the important steps forward that the Obama
administration and Congress have taken to protect privacy."
Members of the European Parliament and national governments are
in final negotiations to find an agreement on a new EU-wide data
protection law that would set stricter conditions on how
companies use Europeans’ data and transfer it outside the
28-member bloc.
Lynch also criticized a decision by the Court of Justice of the
European Union (ECJ) to strike down the so called Safe Harbor
deal that allowed thousands of companies to transfer personal
data easily from Europe to the United States.
"It was particularly disappointing that the European Court of
Justice - in a case based on inaccurate and outdated media
reports - recently struck down the Safe Harbor Agreement," Lynch
said.
Lynch said the decision overlooked the efforts of Obama's
administration to ensure the protection of civil liberties and
privacy.
The United States has crafted information sharing agreements
with 45 partners to identify and track suspected terrorists, a
partnership that has given Interpol 4,000 profiles of foreign
fighters, Lynch said.
"No nation can exist in a bubble of isolation; no country can
imagine themselves immune from world events; and the security of
each state increasingly depends on the security of all states,"
she said, before quoting English poet John Donne.
"The words of four centuries past ring ever true today, 'no man
is an island entire of itself.'"
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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