In other words: the US intel agencies have access to my personal bank details. In Ireland.
Call me naïve if you like. I know this sort of shit goes on. But maybe I would prefer that my country’s spooks spy on me and pass it on to the Department of Homeland Security if they feel it’s warranted. Intrusion into my rights to privacy by a foreign government as a prerequisite to my bank doing business in that country is fucking outrageous.
Simple question: is there a single American citizen on this board who would countenance a foreign government’s ability to observe your checking account in your home country? Not exactly free market, is it?
Bollocks to the idea that us foreigners shouldn’t have an opinion on your election.
Although banks may be be behaving meekly and quietly about it, if such powers ever get used, they’ll almost certainly be successfully challenged under European law.
Probably, the first we’ll hear about it is when some Arab is being tried on anti-terrorism laws. Or perhaps when the US is trying to extradite them. And the US could well fuck up by trying to use such methods which could get the whole case thrown out.
(BTW, I agree fully that it blows a hole in any ‘foreigners butt out of our election’ attitude from Americans.)
And yet for some reason I haven’t seen much Shock & Awe round my place recently (apart from the astonishing amount of illegal firework abuse for Halloween last night).
Can any of our legal eagles plow through that legalese and tell us what it really means? Not to say my gov’t isn’t a bunch of weasels, but i don’t see the part where they can request access to your account. I think it’s a high level certification, where the bank needs to inform when they change the facts of the certification, not inform about every financial transaction.
The CBC ran a story just a little while ago about a similar concern - the BC govt comissioned a report which concluded that the Patriot Act threatened confidentiality of medical files.
I don’t think it’s to do with your personal bank account, jjimm.
I think it’s to do with the account that your bank has with a US bank, which they use to do business in the US. This account is called a Correspondent Account, and the US bank would be the Covered Financial Institution. The requirements of the Patriot Act are that your bank has to tell any US bank with which they have a correspondent account about any of the changes which are laid out in the certification.
I encourage you to have such an opinion, and to share it quite loudly with your bank and your elected leaders. They’re the ones that are choosing to comply with this demand from the US administration.