"Scrupulous" attention to privacy of data
A US civil liberties panel, which was briefed on Tuesday about the United States Treasury's access to limited sets of Swift messages, concluded that Swift has put tight controls in place to protect data privacy.
The panel was impressed with the lengths to which Swift had gone to prevent infringement of people’s civil rights. Swift has reiterated numerous times that it had gone beyond its legal obligations to ensure it complied with all laws, whether in the US or EU.
Swift, which is caught between serious interpretation issues surrounding current US and EU laws, has called repeatedly for a global solution for providing financial intelligence for counter-terrorism purposes with adequate data protection safeguards.
Controls on Bank-Data Spying Impress Civil Liberties Board
November 29, 2006 — The New York Times
By Eric Lichtblau
A civil liberties panel appointed by the White House received a classified briefing Tuesday on the Bush administration’s program to monitor international banking transactions, and several members said they had come away impressed with the privacy controls in place to prevent abuses against Americans.Read more – click and scroll down to the heading ‘Controls on Bank-Data Spying Impress Civil Liberties Board'
Previous statements and stories on compliance
- 23 Nov 2006: Swift strongly objects to advisory opinion from WP 29
- 16 Nov 2006: Swift supports calls for debate to move beyond data privacy to security and public safety
- 24 Oct 2006: New York Times public editor reverses himself on 23 June article
- 8 Oct 2006: Commentary: Swift defends compliance at EU Parliament hearing
- 4 Oct 2006: EU Parliament hearing: Swift statement and press release on compliance
- 28 Sep 2006: Swift supports calls for EU-US talks on security and data privacy
- 25 Aug 2006: Update and Q&A to Swift’s 23 June 2006 statement on compliance: Compliance with subpoenas is legal, limited, targeted, protected, audited and overseen
- 23 Jun 2006: Swift statement on compliance policy: Following recent press coverage, Chairman, Deputy Chairman and CEO provide statement to Swift community