September 25, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Why EU passenger surveillance fails its purpose

The EU Directive imposing the collection of flyers’ information (Passenger Name Record, PNR) was adopted in April 2016, the same day as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The collection of PNR data from all flights going in and out of Brussels has a strong impact on the right of privacy of individuals and it […]

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20200827-EDRi-PNR-roadmapfeedback-FINAL

20200827-EDRi-PNR-roadmapfeedback-FINAL

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July 15, 2004

Opinion data protection authorities on PNR transfer

The Article 29 Working Party that oversees the implementation of the EU privacy directive has released its opinion on the current state of affairs regarding the transfer of passenger data from EU airlines to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Working Party notes that the Commission failed to take into account previous demands by […]

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June 17, 2015 · Blogs

EU continues push for travel surveillance by the back door

The European Commission has released its plans for providing financial support to national security measures. These plans, despite the absence of a legal basis, privacy concerns and a pending EU Court of Justice (CJEU) decision, include the financing of a European mass surveillance measure: namely the long-term storage and exchange of citizens’ air travel data, […]

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July 13, 2015 · Blogs

EU Parliament to vote on indiscriminate collection and storage of travel data on 15 July

Two years after rejecting the Commission proposal for a Directive on Passenger Name Record (PNR) in April 2013, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is expected to vote again on the adoption of this blanket surveillance measure on 15 July. The purpose of the Directive is to collect and store the […]

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November 4, 2015 · Blogs

Can the US be a “safe harbor” for travel surveillance?

This article is a shortened version of an analysis originally published on http://papersplease.org/wp/2015/10/29/can-the-us-be-a-safe-harbor-for-travel-surveillance At its plenary session on 29 October in Strasbourg, the European Parliament adopted a “Resolution on the electronic mass surveillance of European Union citizens”. As part of the Resolution, the European Parliament, “[c]alls on the EU Member States to drop any criminal […]

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May 22, 2019 · Blogs | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Passenger surveillance brought before courts in Germany and Austria

EDRi members Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF, Society for Civil Rights) and Epicenter.works have taken legal action against the mass retention and processing of Passenger Name Records (PNR) before German and Austrian courts and authorities. The European PNR Directive (Directive 2016/681) requires airlines to automatically transfer their passengers’ data to state authorities. There, the data are […]

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January 28, 2009

Some EU data protection policy developments in 2008

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Will the 2008 be remembered as the Data Retention implementation year or the first Freedom not Fear day? As always with the conclusions, we might answer better this question in 2009 or 2018. But let’s look at some facts from the last year now One of the […]

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September 11, 2015 · Blogs

EU secret profiling of air passengers nominated for “big brother awards”

Over the past 15 years, human rights, including the right to privacy, have been traded away to create ever-more invasive measures designed sometimes as tools to protect society against possible terrorist threats and sometimes as a means of being seen to be doing “something” in a show of security theatre. The leitmotif: “Safety First”. The […]

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February 8, 2017 · Blogs

Belgium agrees on passenger controls of international rail traffic

Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom have agreed on new checks of passengers’ identities on international trains. The agreement was reached on 26 January 2017 in an informal meeting between the Ministers of the Interior and Ministers of Justice in Malta. The Belgian Minister of the Interior and Security Jan Jambon announced the […]

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June 7, 2006

EU-US agreement on passenger data transfer annulled

The European Parliament obtained the annulment by the European Court of Justice of the agreement between the European Community and the US Government on the transfer of passenger name records (PNR) from foreign carriers to the US with the view to combat terrorism and maintain national security. In order to prevent problems the agreement will […]

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October 11, 2006

New EU-US interim deal on Passenger Name Record

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The previous agreement adopted in 2004 on EU-US personal data sharing was annulled by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in May 2006, invoking the wrong legal basis. After a series of negotiations between UE and US a new interim agreement was concluded on 6 October […]

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