As new technologies emerge and are integrated into our lives (internet of things, for instance) new uses of personal data evolve. Together with growth in computing and detection capabilities, in the field of biometrics for instance, these evolutions raise legitimate concerns about the protection of privacy and personal data.
Opinion on promoting trust in the Information Society by fostering data protection and privacy
Opinion on the proposals regarding law enforcement access to EURODAC
This Report, which covers 2008 as the fourth full year of activity of the EDPS, concludes the first EDPS mandate and provides an opportunity to take stock of developments since the start.
The report shows that significant progress was achieved both in the EDPS supervisory and advisory tasks. Most Community institutions and bodies are making good progress in ensuring compliance with data protection rules, but there are still great challenges ahead. The EDPS supervision work is therefore putting more emphasis on measuring the level of compliance in practice, in particular through more systematic verifications on the spot, and on monitoring the implementation of recommendations in prior checking.
The EDPS also further improved his performance as an advisor to the European institutions and submitted opinions on an increasing number of legislative proposals. The majority of the EDPS opinions continued to concern issues related to the area of freedom, security and justice. Other subjects, such as e-privacy, public access to documents, the establishment of information systems and access to those systems, cross-border healthcare and new technologies were also quite prominent.
You can obtain a paper version of this Annual Report on EU Bookshop.
Opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on an Area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen, OJ C 276, 17.11.2009, p. 8
Opinion on the Proposal for a Regulation concerning the establishment of 'Eurodac' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EC) No [.../...][establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person] (COM(2008)825), OJ C 229, 23.09.2009, p. 6