More on Czech airline data dispute with the USA

The Prague Post has more details on the ongoing Czech Republic-USA dispute over USA demands for passenger data from Czech Airlines (IATA code "OK") flights to and from the USA, and the absence of legal protection for that data once in the USA.

The Czech objections to the USA demands largely parallel those from the European Union. But there's also this quote from Hana Stepankova of the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection (UOOU) -- a government agency, with, of course, no counterpart in the USA:

"Privacy is one of the basic values of human life, and personal data is the main gate enabling entry into it," Stepankova said. "Besides, the citizens of countries that experienced a period of totalitarian regimes have behind that a hard experience -- when privacy was not considered of value and was sacrificed to the interest of the state."