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Thursday, July 3, 2008 |
Two days ago I reported about privacy regulations in international financial transactions.
Yesterday I made an international payment and realized that our privacy is already being breached on an unprecedented scale. There was a note on my bank's site that told me the transaction data were also transmitted to SWIFT US, so that the US government can monitor every payment. Here is their information page.
Swift: "Currently, SWIFT has operating centres (OPCs) in Europe and the US. Message data is processed simultaneously at both locations to prevent data loss should an OPC be incapacitated. The precise locations are kept confidential for security reasons."
Fact is that all transactions are also sent to Swift US, as well as to the Swift Europe headquarters, that also includes purely national transactions. Which means the US have complete oversight of all transactions effected through banks all over the world.
When there is connection trouble with any of the two main depositories of information, the transaction could be blocked, as the information is always sent to two storage bases. Which means that the US can simply block all international financial traffic and disguise it as a 'communication failure'.
If a serious breakdown of the American economy occurs - and this simply is among the possibilities - you can bet on it the US will block financial traffic worldwide.
Bloomberg: "A disorderly decline in the dollar remains a possibility as losses on U.S. assets pile up and the current-account deficit triggers 'a sudden rush for the exits', the Bank for International Settlements said."
The fact that this spying on all transactions is effective from April 17 this year, without the consent of our national governments or the European community - I don't know about secret agreements, which shouldn't be ruled out - shows how imperialistic the US is and how it flouts all privacy regulations.
Their 'data protection' policies, don't mean a thing. Protection is usually meant for the authorities that enforce illegal spying.
Well, we could always reprogram our tactical nuclear missiles at Volkel to destination Washington, D.C. if the worst comes to the worst.
10:30:35 AM 
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© Copyright 2008 Hetty Litjens.
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