In a turnaround from comments made earlier in 2013, US Attorney General Eric Holder has promised leaders of the European Union that the Obama administration would push forward legislation extending the US Privacy Act of 1974 to European citizens.
The Privacy Act of 1974 was intended to protect the data and personal information of Americans from unlawful inter-agency dissemination by federal agencies. The main text of the act states:
No agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains.
