G8 to pool data on terrorism

[CHIMO]

G8 to pool data on terrorism

Ministers agree to join forces on data and research

The world's most powerful countries are to test the limits of data protection and privacy laws with a plan to pool terrorism research, computer material and possibly DNA and fingerprint samples agreed at the final dress rehearsal to the Gleneagles G8 meeting next month.

Justice and interior ministers, including the US secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, agreed to press ahead with unprecedented cooperation on data-sharing at a three-day meeting in Sheffield, which also acted as a modest curtain-raiser for protesters bound for Edinburgh.

The flagship measure of the new G8 anti-terrorism plans will be coordinated research into how new generations are radicalised, almost certainly including studies of the effects of Guantánamo Bay and similar detention centres on alienated people, particularly the young.

This will be backed up by technical and legal drives to see how much information-sharing can be permitted by the different privacy laws of G8 states, following the success of international databases set up to counter child abuse and people trafficking.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,15935,1509276,00.html