'Policy-laundering'

"Policy-laundering is something that every 5 year old is familiar with. If you have ever seen a 5 year old come up to his mother and say "but Dad said I could" then you have witnessed policy-laundering in action." -- Blogger and novelist Cory Doctorow.

This decade may eventually be seen as the dark age of policy-laundering -- the use of foreign and international forums as platforms for pushing policies that could never win approval through the regular domestic political process.

Just as money-laundering describes the cycling of illegitimate funds through outside institutions in order to legitimise them, policy-laundering involves the cycling of policies that lack political legitimacy through outside institutions in order to enter them into circulation. According to The Policy Laundering Project, the United States and other nations favour policy-laundering to overcome civil liberties objections to potential privacy-invading policies.

The organisation identifies four key areas where it believes policy-laundering has been used.

Identity documents: The United States and the United Kingdom are pushing for biometric passports at the relatively obscure UN-affiliated agency the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Surveillance of communications: Data retention laws would force internet service providers to retain their records of customers' communications for a set period of time for potential police access. The policy has proved unpopular in the United States so far, but Washington is pushing European governments to adopt it. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, and France are now pushing communications surveillance policies through the EU.

Passenger name records: The Bush Administration's efforts to demand access to passenger name records (PNR) data on Europeans flying to the United States are contrary to European privacy laws that limit such sharing.

Transfer of information: There is now systematic transfer of personal information between various governments on citizens, passengers, and bank account holders, based on agreements at the European Union, the Council of Europe, between the US and a number of countries, and the Financial Action Task Force.

The practice is likely to lead civil right groups to call for global accountability structures.