data retention
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Rather delete than comply: how Europol snubbed data subject rights
On 8 September 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issued a decision ordering the EU law enforcement agency, Europol, to give Dutch activist Frank van der Linde access to the personal data the agency holds on him following a two-year investigation by the data protection watchdog. Findings of the inspection reveal that Europol tried to cover up the traces of the data processing and to avoid complying with the data access request by deleting van der Linde’s data.
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Good news: Dutch secret services destroy unlawfully stored information on millions of innocent citizens
The secret services store information on millions of citizens that they are no longer by law allowed to have. EDRi member Bits of Freefom filed a complaint about this with the supervisor. The supervisor stated on June 15, 2022, that the data must be destroyed.
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Mass surveillance of external travellers may go on, says EU’s highest court
On 21 June 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in case C-817/19 Ligue des droits humains from Belgium which challenged the validity of the Passenger Name Records (PNR) Directive. Regrettably, the PNR Directive as such was found to be compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
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Belgium’s data retention law must not undermine people’s right to privacy
Belgium's Parliament will soon vote on the draft law on the collection and retention of identification data and metadata in the electronic communications sector and the provision of such data to authorities. This draft law, as it is and if adopted without adequate adjustments, would pose a threat to people’s rights, such as the right to privacy and data protection, freedom of expression and information, press freedoms and professional secrecy guarantees, and would potentially set a dangerous precedent for other Member States.
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Bits of Freedom files a complaint against intelligence services on behalf of millions of citizens
The Dutch secret services are illegally storing the data of millions of citizens. The supervisor does not have the means to do anything about this violation of the law, so EDRi member Bits of Freedom filed a formal complaint. It is high time that the secret services started to abide by the law. Our data should be removed from their servers.
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Stop data retention in Germany and the European Union
Germany must show true leadership and set a strong precedent in the EU against the use of mass data retention to fight serious crimes. Mass data retention is one of the most privacy-intrusive instruments that treat everybody as criminals by presumption. It is high time that European governments implement rights-respecting and proportionate solutions in police investigations. Read the open letter EDRi and 12 civil society organisations sent to the German ministers of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to urge them to stop the use of data retention practices in crime investigations.
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Portugal: Constitutional Court strikes data retention down
On 19 April 2022, at the request of the Ombudsperson, the Portuguese Constitutional Court declared the unconstitutionality of the Portuguese data retention law.
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ID-Fingerprint obligation to be reviewed by European Court of Justice
The local Administrative Court of Wiesbaden (Hesse, Germany), where EDRi member Digitalcourage started legal action against the obligation for fingerprints in identity (ID) cards, submited the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
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Opinion on the Passenger Name Record CJEU case
In Case-817/19, Belgium’s Constitutional Court has asked the EU Court of Justice whether the PNR Directive (2016/681) is compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The hope must be that the Court will stand up for the rights of individuals, enforce the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and declare the PNR Directive (like the Data Retention Directive) to be fundamentally in breach of the Charter.
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EU: Data retention strikes back? Options for mass telecoms surveillance under discussion again
In June 2021 the European Commission sought the views of member states on ways to reintroduce the bulk retention of telecoms traffic, location and internet connection data on everyone in the EU. Responses from seven member states, published here, show a divergence of views on what data to retain and when, but a majority in favour of new EU legislation.
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Data Retention? Advocate General says “Asked and answered!”
After the 2020 landmark ruling (La Quadrature du Net and others), one would have hoped that the Court had provided sufficiently clear conclusions with regards to the legality of data retention regimes in the EU. Nonetheless, the three referring national courts maintained their requests for preliminary rulings.
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Do no harm? How the case of Afghanistan sheds light on the dark practice of biometric intervention
In August 2021, as US military forces exited Afghanistan, the Taliban seized facial recognition systems, highlighting just how a failure to protect people’s privacy can tangibly threaten their physical safety and human rights. Far from being good tools which fell into the wrong hands, the very existence of these systems is part of broader structures of data extraction and exploitation spanning continents and centuries, with a history wrapped up in imperialism, colonialism and control.
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