Group Wants Nations to Protect Bank Data

A civil liberties group said it had asked governments around the world to block the release of confidential financial records to U.S. anti-terrorism authorities.

London-based watchdog Privacy International said it had filed complaints with data protection and privacy regulators in 13 European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, arguing that the disclosures of financial transactions “were made without any legal basis or authority whatsoever.”

The U.S. Treasury Department acknowledged last week that it had tracked millions of financial transactions handled by the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT.