Brussels, 06/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) was critical on Thursday 6 October of the proposal to revise the EU legislation on tachographs - devices used in road transport to monitor driving times and rest periods of professional drivers - as a means of checking compliance with social legislation in the field (tomorrow EUROPE will report the outcome of discussions of the Transport Ministers Council).
The revision is meant to make use of new technological developments to improve the effectiveness of digital, rather than manual, tachographs, through, for example, the use of geo-location equipment and remote communication facilities.
The EDPS welcomes the inclusion in the proposal of a specific provision on data protection that promotes the Privacy by Design principle and underlines the responsibility of owners of vehicles and/or transport undertakings to comply with data protection law. He emphasises, however, that this provision alone does not tackle all the data protection concerns linked to the use of tachographs. Additional data protection safeguards are needed to guarantee a satisfactory level of data protection in the system. The EDPS also urges the Commission to update the technical specifications and security measures relevant to the many technologies associated with the new devices to avoid discrepancies in their implementation by industry.
The EDPS also recommends that: - the installation and use of devices for the direct and principal purpose of allowing employers to remotely monitor in real time the actions or whereabouts of their employees should be ruled out; - the general arrangements of the processing of personal data in tachographs, such as the types of data recorded in tachographs and in geo-location equipment, the recipients and the time limits for data retention, should be set out clearly in the proposal; - the security requirements for the digital tachograph laid down in the proposal need to be further developed, in particular to preserve the confidentiality of the data, to ensure data integrity and to prevent fraud and unlawful manipulation; - the introduction of any technological update (for example, remote communication, Intelligent Transport Systems) in tachographs should be duly supported by privacy impact assessments to assess the privacy risks raised by the use of these technologies. Given the potential quantity of information recorded about drivers' activities, such assessments should also be carried out with regard to the proposal to merge the functions of driver cards and driving licences. (LC/transl.rt)