The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the European Union's independent authority for the protection of personal data, considered that the integrity of the European Parliament Elections will act as "the litmus test of how robust the EU’s legal regime really is", Tuesday 26 February.
Presenting the first annual activity report since the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Giovanni Buttarelli and his deputy Wojciech Wiewiórowski expressed their satisfaction with the new European rules in place since May 2018.
However, improvements are still needed to strengthen data protection for European citizens.
Mr Buttarelli recalled that an "agreement on a new ePrivacy regulation is urgent" (see EUROPE 12201). He stressed the need to look "beyond rules and regulations" in the future, in particular "through initiatives focused on digital ethics and greater regulatory cooperation".
In addition, according to the EDPS, politicians are now well aware that the excessive information power of some companies and data controllers represents a major threat, not only to consumer freedom, but also to democracy itself.
Buttarelli and Wiewiórowski saw the integrity of the forthcoming European elections as "the litmus test of how robust the EU's legal regime really is".
Asked about the transatlantic scheme ‘Privacy Shield’ regarding data protection (see EUROPE 12181), Mr Buttarelli asked for more guarantees from the US administration regarding the use of data by US authorities "for legitimate law enforcement purposes".
According to him, the recent data protection adequacy decision with Japan (see EUROPE 12178) offers more guarantees on this subject, in particular with regard to bulk collection of data - a method of data collection carried out by the US authorities for public order and national security purposes.
Unlike others in the EU, Mr Buttarelli does not consider that bulk collection of data is, in itself, totally incompatible with the European data protection system. But he believes that guarantees must be provided on what this means for data originating from the EU.
See the annual report: https://bit.ly/2SZOqJK. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)