Überwachung

Stellungnahme vom 3. September 2010 zur Vorabkontrolle im Hinblick auf das Europäische Überwachungssystem „TESSy“ im Europäischen Zentrum für die Prävention und die Kontrolle von Krankheiten („ECDC“) (Fall 2009-0474)

Thematische Leitlinien des EDSB zu Videoüberwachung

Stellungnahme zu den laufenden Verhandlungen der Europäischen Union über ein Abkommen zur Bekämpfung von Produkt- und Markenpiraterie (ACTA)

The EDPS has adopted an opinion on current negotiations by the European Union of a multilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) aimed at strengthening the enforcement of intellectual property rights and to combat counterfeiting and piracy.

In the light of the information reported about ACTA, the EDPS has concerns about the potential incompatibility between envisaged measures and data protection requirements.

The EDPS makes a number of recommendations in view of providing guidance to the European Commission on the privacy and data protection related aspects that should be considered in the ACTA negotiations. He stresses in particular that:

• the fight against piracy on the Internet should not include large scale monitoring of Internet users through the use of "three strikes Internet disconnection policies" or "graduated response" schemes;
• other less intrusive means to fight piracy on the Internet must be investigated  or, at least, envisaged policies should be performed at a more limited scope, notably through targeted ad hoc monitoring;
• appropriate safeguards must be applied to all international data transfers in the context of ACTA, which should take the form of binding agreements between EU senders and third country recipients;
• a public and transparent dialogue must be established on ACTA.
   

Opinion on the Communication from the Commission on an Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe and the accompanying Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other transport modes, OJ C 47, 25.02.2010, p. 6

The EDPS has adopted an opinion on the European Commission's proposed deployment plan for intelligent transport systems (ITS) in Europe that was adopted in December 2008 to accelerate and coordinate their deployment in road transport and their connection with other modes of transport. The deployment of ITS  has considerable privacy implications, for instance because these systems make it possible to track a vehicle and to collect a wide variety of data relating to European road users' driving habits.

The EDPS notes that data protection has been taken into consideration in the proposed legal framework and that it is also put forward as a general condition for the proper deployment of ITS. He however underlines that the Commission's proposal is too broad and too general to adequately address the privacy and data protection concerns raised by ITS deployment in the Member States. In particular, it is not clear when the performance of ITS services will lead to the collection and processing of personal data, what are the purposes and modalities for which data processing may take place, or who will be responsible for compliance with data protection obligations.

The EDPS opinion includes the following main recommendations:

• clarification of responsibilities: it is crucial to clarify the roles of the different actors involved in ITS in order to identify who will bear the responsibility of ensuring that systems work properly from a data protection perspective (who is the data controller?);
• safeguards for the use of location technologies: appropriate safeguards should be implemented by data controllers providing ITS services so that the use of location technologies is not intrusive from a privacy viewpoint. This should notably require further clarification as to the specific circumstances in which a vehicle will be tracked, strictly limiting the use of location devices to what is necessary for that purpose, and ensuring  that location data are not disclosed to unauthorized recipients;
• "privacy by design" approach: the EDPS recommends to consider privacy and data protection from an early stage of the design of ITS to define the architecture, operation and management of the systems. Privacy and security requirements should be incorporated within standards, best practices, technical specifications and systems.

Background information
ITS apply information and communication technologies (satellite, computer, telephone, etc.) to transport infrastructure and vehicles with the intention to make transport safer and cleaner and to reduce traffic congestion. ITS applications and services are based on the collection, processing and exchange of a wide variety of data, both from public and private sources, including information on traffic and accidents but also personal data, such as the driving habits and journey patterns of citizens. Their deployment will also rely to a large extent on the use of geolocalisation technologies, such as satellite-positioning and RFID tags. As such, ITS constitute a "data-intensive area" and raise a number of privacy and data protection issues that should be carefully addressed in order to ensure the workability of ITS across Europe.

Am 7. Juli 2009 veröffentlichte der EDSB den ersten Konsultationsentwurf seiner Leitlinien für die Videoüberwachung. Die Datenschutzbeauftragten der europäischen Organe und Einrichtungen sowie andere Akteure wurden aufgefordert, sich bis zum 15. September 2009 zu diesen Leitlinien zu äußern. Am 30. September führte der EDSB einen Workshop durch, um weitere Rückmeldungen zur Verbesserung des Leitlinienentwurfs zu erhalten und die Zusammenarbeit mit Blick auf die Einhaltung der Datenschutzgrundsätze zu verstärken.