Brussels, 01/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 28 January, the European commissioner-designate for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, Viviane Reding, reiterated her opposition to the obligation to carry out checks on passengers using body scanners in airports as part of the fight against terrorism. “I am convinced that body scanners have a considerable privacy-invasive potential”, she told the European Parliament, at the fourth European Data Protection Day. “Their usefulness is still to be proven. Their impact on health has not yet been fully assessed. Therefore I cannot imagine this privacy-intrusive technique being imposed on us without full consideration of its impact”, Reding stressed. Her stance echoes the reservations voiced by the members of the European Parliament (EUROPE 10066). The Luxembourg commissioner also takes a cautious position on the transfer of “large volumes” of bank data to the United States, particularly via Swift (EUROPE 10065). “I remain to be convinced that all of these Swift transfers are necessary, proportionate and effective to fight terrorism. I will be looking into this very closely in the coming weeks”, she added, stating that the usefulness of this kind of system needed to be demonstrated by means of “evidence”.
Against a backdrop of increasing numbers and popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, the future commissioner also stated her intention of revising the 1995 directive on the protection of personal data, within the next few months. “The world has changed (…) since 1995 (…). The EU will have to provide a robust legal instrument to respond to the challenges posed by the rapid development of new technologies and by involving security threats”, Reding stated. The European Commission, which is currently looking at the responses to the public consultation on the reform of the directive, intends to put forward a proposal under the LisbonTreaty and Charter of Fundamental Rights. Reding listed the key actions to feature in this new legislation: - clarifying the application of the principles in practice, such as consent and transparency; - protecting personal data irrespective of where the data controller is located; - promoting online privacy-enhancing technologies or PETs, by introducing new principles, along the lines of “privacy by design” (integration of the principles of privacy protection from the design phase onwards); - incorporating the fundamental data protection rights to cover all the areas of competence of the EU, including police and legal cooperation and external relations. (B.C./transl.fl)