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Opinions Prior Check and Prior Consultations

Some of the procedures that EU institutions put in place pose risks to the data protection rights and freedoms of individuals.

Under the old legal framework (Regulation (EC) 45/2001), EU institutions were obliged to notify us before putting in place risky data processing operations.

In general, our prior checking Opinions were public.

Regulation 2018/1725 builds on the old Regulation and mirrors the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) that applies to most organisations processing personal data in the Member States. Compared to the previous rules, Regulation 2018/1725 aligns documentation obligations more closely to the risks caused by processing personal data. This means for example that the documentation requirements for a EUI’s newsletter subscription will be lower than for a system using ‘intelligent CCTV’ covering publicly accessible space or a database profiling travellers for screening purposes.

Depending on the process at hand, EU institutions processing personal data ('controllers') may not have to go through all the steps below (these steps are described in the Accountability on the ground toolkit): 
• Generate basic documentation (called ‘records’) for all processes; 
• Check if the process is likely to result in high risks to the people whose data are processed and consult the DPO if it appears to do so; 
• If the EU institution needs to do a data protection impact assessment (DPIA), they analyse those risks in more detail and develop specific safeguards/controls to manage them; 
• If the results of the DPIA still indicate high residual data protection risks, the EU institution has to file a prior consultation with the EDPS (see Articles 40 and 90 of Regulation 2018/1725 respectively for administrative and operational personal data).

Article 39 of Regulation 2016/794 on Europol provides for an ad hoc prior consultation mechanism for new type of processing of operational data, namely data processed by Europol to support the Member States in preventing and combating serious crime and terrorism. Similarly, Article 72 of Regulation 2017/1939 on the European Public Prosecutor Office (EPPO) provides a specific prior consultation mechanism for the processing of operational data, namely data processed in the context of criminal investigations and prosecutions undertaken by the EPPO. Regulation 2018/1725, including the standard prior consultation mechanism, applies to Europol's and EPPO's processing of administrative data, which includes data on staff and visitors, for example.

Where an EU institution is unsure whether to notify us a data processing operation for prior consultation, their DPO can consult us for advice to confirm.

As for the old prior checking Opinions, in general the prior consultation Opinions are public, but we may delete sensitive elements where necessary, related to security for example. Some opinions, which are by nature sensitive, in particular in the police and justice area, may not be published. For the sake of transparency, these Opinions are summarised in our Annual Report.

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4
Jul
2008

Service conjoint médico-social - CdR et CESE

Avis du 4 juillet 2008 sur la notification d'un contrôle préalable à propos du dossier "service conjoint médico-social" (Dossier 2007-004)
Le dossier en l'espèce concerne de différents traitements qui ont pour objet d'assurer le suivi médical des membres du personnel du CESE et du CdR respectivement et d'évaluer l'aptitude à exercer leur fonction. Leurs finalités sont les visites médicales d'embauche, les visites médicales annuelles, les consultations et urgences, le contrôle des absences, les congés spéciaux, les commissions d'invalidités, les expertises et contrôles, les questions liées à la médecine du travail, les rapports médicaux spécialisés et les factures correspondantes, l'échange des dossiers médicaux entre institutions, les certificats ou rapports médicaux demandant une traduction et enfin l'examen ophtalmologique du personnel travaillant sur écran. 

Les traitements effectués tombent sous le champ d'application de l'article 27.2 du règlement 45/2001, car les données tombent indubitablement dans le champ des "données relatives à la santé" et des données médicales.

Dans le cadre de ses recommandations, le CEPD a exigé inter alia que le nouveau questionnaire médical de la visite d'embauche approuvé par le Collège médical interinstitutionnel soit adopté, et qu'une période de conservation des données concernant les personnes externes (visiteurs, freelance, personnels de firmes externes par exemple) soit établisse à la lumière de la finalité pour laquelle leurs données ont été collectées. En outre, le CEPD a recommandé que la pratique actuelle d'envoyer la facture directement au service médical du Comité concerné soit maintenue et qu'une procédure pour les personnes non recrutées ou les personnes externes pour lesquelles des informations médicales ont été enregistrées soit mise en place afin que l'article 13 du règlement 45/2001 soit respecté. La note d'information aux personnes concernées a aussi fait l'objet d'une série des recommandations afin qu'elle soit améliorée et complétée correctement.

Available languages: French
30
Jun
2008

Identity and access management system - OLAF

Opinion of 30 June 2008 on a notification for prior checking on CBIS identity and access management system (Case 2008-223)
The current prior check Opinion relates to processing of personal information carried out by OLAF, in particular the Information Services Division to ensure that only authorised persons have access to OLAF's core IT systems and to allow investigation of security incidents.

Authentication in CBIS is based on digital certificates and fingerprints. Certificates are stored on the personal OLAF badges (smartcards) of users and protected by a biometric Match-on-card authentication scheme. Each user will have three fingerprint templates stored on his/her OLAF badge, which is a contact interface used by the CBIS IT authentication system.

In his opinion, the EDPS specifically analyses the respect of the data quality principle. To do so, he made a thorough analysis of the implementation of fall back procedures in the case of failure to enrol. Moreover, he also examined the way the False Rejection Rate is defined and provided recommendations on that.

The EDPS considers that the processing operation is not in breach of Regulation 45/2001 if OLAF takes into account specific recommendations before implementing the intended processing operations and after the processing operations have started.

Available languages: English, French
20
Jun
2008

Leave and flexitime - EMCDDA

Opinion of 20 June 2008 on a notification for prior checking  on the management of leave and flexitime (Case 2008-158)
The EMCDDA records all leave taken by its staff on an in-house database "Sic Congés". The system is designed to enable every member of staff to enter, amend or cancel data necessary for a leave application as well as to enable managers (head of units, director) to monitor leave and leave administrators (HR staff) to manage leave entitlements. When doing so, personal data concerning health are revealed in order to justify medical absences. In his opinion the EDPS scrutinised the steps of the procedure which deserve close attention from a data protection point of view and made recommendations on several points, including the storage of data, handling of medical certificates, procedure for rectification of data and information of the concerned staff members.

Available languages: English, French
20
Jun
2008

Day care centre - CEDEFOP

Opinion of 20 June 2008 on a notification for prior checking on the "Day care centre" case (Case 2008-193)
CEDEFOP’s day care centre (DCC) is a facility offered by CEDEFOP to its employees. The purpose of the data processing is to admit the staff's children to the DCC and make the medical records (vaccination and allergies record) available to the DCC staff. The purpose is also to calculate each month the financial contribution to be paid by the parents of children enrolled at the DCC and to know whom to contact in case of an emergency. The DCC shall offer a safe environment and stimulating pedagogical programme to children who are attending the services of the ‘nursery’ and ‘after-school care’. 

The main recommendations issued by the EDPS in the framework of his opinion relating to DCC are dealing with quality of data, retention period, transfer and information given to data subjects.

Available languages: English, French