The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is concerned about the effects of the reform of Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, on the protection of personal data and expressed this in an opinion published on Monday 27 June, the day the reform was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The new rules (see EUROPE 12881/5), which give Europol the ability to process large datasets with a substantial increase in the volume of personal data stored, to exchange data with private parties or to use artificial intelligence, “weaken the fundamental right to data protection”. The new rules do not ensure proper control of Europol either. “Data relating to individuals who have no established link to criminal activity will be treated in the same way as the personal data of people with a link to criminal activity”.
“The impact of the Regulation is compounded by the fact that the EU Member States can retroactively authorise Europol to process large amounts of data already shared with Europol before the Regulation entered into force”.
The EDPS regrets, in general, that “the expansion of Europol’s mandate has not been matched by strong data protection safeguards that would allow the agency to fulfil its mandate”.
Link to the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/2dj (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)