U.S. seeks more European data sharing

WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- The United States says it is negotiating to share information with European countries on the race, political and religious beliefs of criminal suspects.

That information would be shared along with fingerprints and DNA information, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The United States and Germany in March reached a preliminary agreement on sharing access to fingerprints, DNA files and other information to combat serious crime. That deal is expected to be replicated with Central and Eastern European countries such as Estonia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the newspaper said.

"European governments are entering into these agreements much more readily than they were four, five years ago, because concerns about terrorism are no longer confined to one side of the Atlantic," Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told the Times.

But privacy advocates on both sides of the Atlantic are worried about who would have access to the information and what criteria would be used to prevent its abuse.