Category Archives: Law enforcement

content regulation / Copyright / defamation / filtering / hate speech / Human rights / Internet intermediaries / Law enforcement / liability / notice-and-action / notice-and-take down / terrorism

The EU approach to content regulation online: tackling (il)legal content online with upload and re-upload filters!

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Intermediary liability has been up until now a never-ending story. For the past two years, we have been regularly fed with communications, codes of conduct, legislative proposals, as well as soft but loud encouragements, from national governments targeting online platforms and asking them to do much more to tackle illegal content such as child sexual … Continue reading →

Access to data / Data protection / General Data Protection Regulation / Law enforcement / Legitimate interest / Personal data / sensitive data

CJEU Advocate General Opines on the ‘Legitimate Interest’ Concept

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But how exactly does EU law achieve the weighing of competing legitimate interests and rights in a data protection law context? I’ve previously written (here) about the concept of legitimate interest under data protection law and how it has captured the attention of data protection agencies, as well as the EU institutions in informing the … Continue reading →

Data retention / Data transfer / Human rights / Law enforcement / safe harbour / Security / Surveillance

CJEU Advocate General opines on the compatibility of EU-Canada PNR Agreement with EU Charter rights to privacy and personal data protection

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We’ve heard it before, and we’ll hear it again… ‘How can interference with fundamental EU rights to privacy and personal data protection be justified when it comes to mass-automated data processing?’ In other words, to what extent will the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights keep this international agreement grounded before it can take flight? Earlier … Continue reading →

Data protection / Intelligence and security agencies / Law enforcement / Privacy policies

New UK Decisions on the Data Protection Implications of Information Sharing with Law Enforcement

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Compliance with governmental requests for information raise a minefield of different laws, but data protection/privacy rights hold special pitfalls Determining when the sharing of personal data is legal can be a complicated exercise. Yet, the impetus for governmental agencies to collect and share more and more information is at an unprecedented high. In the EU, … Continue reading →

Data protection / Law enforcement / Security / Surveillance / terrorism

New Air Passenger Data Processing Rules to Apply from 2018

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Ready, steady, go… Clock countdown formally starts for the reform of three major pieces of EU data legislation! It’s finally final – three separate pieces of data privacy-related legislation in the EU will be coming into effect soon: As anticipated by Sophie last month here, the final version of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) … Continue reading →

Access to data / Breach notification / Data protection / Data retention / General Data Protection Regulation / Law enforcement / Personal data / Privacy / Privacy impact assessment / Surveillance

Article 29 WP and the draft directive on the processing of personal data by law enforcement agencies: has Article 29 WP been heard?

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Last month, the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) of the Council of the EU  the compromise texts agreed with the European Parliament on data protection reform. As a reminder, the reform is a legislative package concerning two legislative instruments: the second of which discussed here (and far less catching the press headlines than the General Data … Continue reading →

Access to data / content data / Data protection / Data retention / deep packet inspection / ISPs / Law enforcement / metadata / Personal data / Privacy / Surveillance

The Draft IP Bill and data retention obligations: on the irony of the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive

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The Draft Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill was published on the 4th of November. It aims to “govern the use and oversight of investigatory powers by law enforcement and the security and intelligence agencies” in the UK. It is an attempt both to simplify the legal framework and legalise practices, which means it is, in part, … Continue reading →

Data protection / data protection agencies / Law enforcement

EU Justice Ministers agree ‘common position’ for new EU data protection rules in the field of law enforcement

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Adoption of new Data Protection Directive for police and judicial cooperation is one step closer – however, arguments continue over the extent to which the processing of personal data for the purposes of law enforcement , as well as the “safeguarding against and the prevention of threats to public security”, should be subject to traditional … Continue reading →

Data protection / Law enforcement / terrorism

The European Commission announces that data protection ‘umbrella agreement’ negotiations are concluded

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With Schrems and safe harbours in the spotlight, what does the conclusion of a US-EU umbrella agreement actually mean for EU citizens and US-EU relations? With news in Sophie’s recent post here on the recent judgement of the CJEU in Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner, the purpose of this post is to discuss the recent … Continue reading →

Access to data / Data retention / Internet intermediaries / Law enforcement

The (EU Parliament) Legal Service’s opinion on the impact of the invalidity of the data retention Directive…. Is the wind starting to blow?

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On 8 January, the legal service of the European Parliament released an opinion, the purpose of which was to answer 9 questions posed by its LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home affairs), as regards the effect of the judgment of CJEU in the landmark Digital Ireland (DRI) case of 8 April 2014 on the … Continue reading →