European governments may have access to NSA data on US citizens

There is an interesting article in the EUObserver about the EU Data Retention Bill that was passed in February after much controversy. The bill requires all phone and internet providers to maintain records on all calls for at least six months.

It turns out that within a week of the bill's passing, the US government was already asking for access to those records. And, it has been determined that the US would have access to those data under existing bi-lateral agreements.

My first thought on reading this was that we will not only have access to every call in the US but to every call in Europe as well, and I wondered how that would sit with the Europeans.

My second thought was, hmmm, now that it is known that the NSA keeps these kinds of data on our own citizens, if the sharing agreements are bi-lateral, European governments will also have access to all our domestic calls under the agreements. I wonder how that will sit with Americans.

Just how happy will the Freedom Fries crowd be when they learn that the hated French government is searching through their phone records?