OMG, Eric Holder reassured the EU they have nothing to worry about and...

Assurances from Holder? No, no, no, that's not how you do it with these guys. Now you need to go back and ask them to define the word "targeted".

Prism NSA surveillance 'did not collect European data in bulk'

EU commissioner says she has assurances that only those suspected of links to terrorism or cybercrime were targeted

Ian Traynor in Brussels, Sam Jones and Gwyn Topham
guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 June 2013 18.18 BST


Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, said US collection of metadata via Verizon was 'mainly an American question'. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

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At a meeting of US and EU justice and law enforcement officials in Dublin, Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for justice, said she was satisfied that US collection of metadata via the Verizon mobile phone network was "mainly an American question".

The much bigger issues, raised by Edward Snowden's leaks to the Guardian, concerned the NSA hoovering up data from social media and internet servers across Europe in flagrant breach of EU data protection regulations.

Reding said the US and the EU had agreed to set up a working group of security experts to grapple with the implications for the European public.

"Considering Prism, the US answers to the questions I have raised were the following: it is about foreign intelligence threats. Prism is targeted at non-US citizens under investigation on suspicion of terrorism and cybercrimes. So it is not about bulk data mining, but specific individuals or targeted groups. It is on the basis of a court order, of an American court, and of congressional oversight," said Reding.

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Eric Holder, the US attorney general, said the Prism programme was aimed at "facilitating the acquisition of foreign intelligence information on targets outside the US". He said the programme was only used if it was "reasonably believed" that the "foreign target" was outside the US and was suspected of being involved in terrorism, cybercrime or nuclear proliferation. Use of the surveillance programme was subject to "extensive oversight".

"Everything is done consistent with the law," Holder said.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/14/prism-nsa-surveillance-european-data

or ?