The local newspaper just told me that "because of an massive lobbying campaign" in this January, the EU deleted a passage in their laws, which would make this data collecting illegal.
Yes, it's legal now ! And the U.S. government wanted it to be so !
I was shocked after I read this.
I feel both tricked and … treasoned (is this the right word ?). I feel treasoned by the U.S. government - they were ACTIVELY seeking to undemine the EU's laws !
First the U.S. government FORCES the EU to transfer ALL flight passenger data from those who want to fly into the U.S. into the U.S. - and NOW they're collecting EVERYTHING !
I never felt this much insulted since George W. Bush called all those countries who were not positive towards his plans to invade Iraq as "The Old Europe".
http://dict.leo.org suggests the wording "sold down the river". I'm not totally sure what it means, but it goes into the right direction.
The U.S. government as a body is acting more and more paranoid.
The newspaper says that the original report regarding the "massive U.S. lobbying campaign" came from the Financial Times.
The article can be found
here, but it is behind a paywall.