Advocate General (AG) Bot delivered his awaited opinion on 23 September 2015 in the case C-362/14 Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner. As readers might remember (see my previous post here), the Irish High Court had made a reference for a preliminary ruling back in 2014. [For background, talented Austrian Facebook user, Maximillian Schrems complained … Continue reading
Category Archives: Surveillance
EU Parliament agrees to commence finalising the Passenger Name Record Directive in light of added data protection safeguards
Questions asked about the necessity and proportionality of yet another state scheme authorising the bulk sharing of personal data, and its storage, for risk assessment purposes – Will the EU get it right this time? In light of the growing threat posed by Islamic State militants, the issue of the EU air travel industry’s passenger … Continue reading
What if the French constitutional judges had read the Davis Judgement? Would we be living in a better world?
The French Constitutional Court (Conseil Constitutionnel) issued its decision n°2015-713 DC on the recently adopted Law on intelligence on 23 July 2015. Reading its decision after having read the Davis judgment of the English High Court, one wonders whether legal syllogism has suddenly been replaced by useless tautology. The newly adopted law on intelligence is … Continue reading
The Davis judgement: does Article 8 of the European Charter go beyond Article 8 of the ECHR?
Here we are! The last episode of the UK saga “and what do we do with data retention laws” has been issued by the English High Court, with its judgement in the case David Davis MP, Tom Watson MP, Peter Brice, Geoffrey Lewis v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 2092 … Continue reading
The new judgement of the UK Supreme Court on the scope of Article 8 ECHR or why Lord Kerr is right…
In its recent judgement of 1 July 2015 In the matter of an application by JR38 for Judicial Review (Norther Ireland) [2015] UKSC 42, the UK Supreme Court held that the publication of photographs of a minor (just about 14 years old at the time of publication) suspected of involvement in criminal activities did not … Continue reading
On Willems et al. v Burgemeester van Nuth and the processing of personal data by law enforcement agencies…If only the CJEU had been more prolix….
As explained in an earlier post, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued on 16 April 2015 its preliminary ruling in the case of Willems and Others v Burgemeester van Nuth and Others C-446-12 to C-449/12 (Willems) concerning the interpretation of an EU Regulation (2252/2004, ‘the Regulation’) on standards for security features and biometrics … Continue reading
On surveillance, safe harbour and Schrems…Are we that stuck?
Readers of this blog will almost certainly be aware that the European Union (EU) was the first regional organisation on the international stage to adopt a comprehensive, and relatively stringent, data protection regime. Yet, as the Internet is a global communications infrastructure, the EU has had to find ways to dialogue with non-EU (‘third’) countries … Continue reading
EU Working Party publishes Working Document and Joint Statement on data protection and electronic surveillance for security purposes
State surveillance under EU scrutiny once again The Article 29 Working Party (DPWP) has published a Working Document on surveillance of electronic communications for intelligence and national security purposes (WP228), together with a short Joint Statement (WP227) on the ways in which the EU should influence policy in this area through its data protection legal … Continue reading
Data protection / Internet intermediaries / Law enforcement / Privacy / Surveillance / video surveillance
CJEU interprets the concept of ‘in the course of a purely personal or household activity’ and indirectly delineates the remit of the Data Protection Directive
In its judgement of 11 December 2014 (Case C-212/13 František Ryneš v Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů) the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had to answer “a very precise” question [to use the words of Advocate General JÄÄSKINEN]: “Can the operation of a camera system installed on a family home for the … Continue reading
Are the Europeans that different from the Americans? Can online service providers rely upon their privacy policies to systematically gather the metadata and content data of online communications in order to detect all sorts of illegal activities and let law enforcement bodies know?
That online service providers (OSPs), including Internet Service providers (ISPs), can do almost all what they want with our data, as long as they have a “decent” privacy policy, has just been confirmed in the US by the very recent decision of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. I have already … Continue reading