European Data Protection Supervisor
The EU's independent data protection authority
As we wave 2020 goodbye, we wish you all the best for 2021! Happy New Year!
On 25 January, the EDPS will host an online side event in the margins of the 2021 CPDP conference: Data for the public good: building a healthier digital future.
The EDPS publishes an opinion on the European Commission proposal on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum.
EDPS preliminary opinion on the European Commission's "A European strategy for data" and the creation of the European Health Data Space ('EHDS').
EDPS Opinion on the European Commission proposal for temporary derogations from Directive 2002/58/EC for the purpose of combatting child sexual abuse online.
Our October newsletter is out now, find out more about the EDPS' latest activities!
Read Press Release
Read Strategic Document
Read Speech by Wojciech Wiewiórowski delivered at the ENISA Annual Privacy Forum (online), Brussels, Belgium.
On 21 October, the EDPS will host an IPEN Webinar on: 'Contact Tracing Apps as a large scale exercise in privacy engineering'.
The event will be free, no registration needed.
Every October at the EDPS, and all across Europe, we celebrate the European Cybersecurity Month and this year is no exception.
'Ethics and Data Protection in Artificial Intelligence - 2 years after the Brussels Declaration', EDPS Webinar organised in the context of the 2020 GPA Closed Session.
The EDPS hosts an online edition of the Data Protection Workshop within International Organisations, on 8 & 9 October. This year's topic is Data protection in international organisations in times of crisis.
Read Speech by Wojciech Wiewiórowski delivered at the 7th meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol (JPSG), European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.
The EDPS has issued orientations on body temperature checks by EU institutions in the fight against COVID-19.
Read Press Release and Read Orientations
Quantum computers can be highly beneficial to scientific developments due to the new, speedy way of performing computing. Once available, they however could break currently used cryptography and undermine the protection of (personal) data.
Read the EDPS Blogpost on encryption following the IPEN workshops
The EDPS has issued guidelines to advise on questions such as teleworking tools, staff management, health data aspects and replying to data subject access requests.
EDPS Report on the EU Institutions' use of Data Protection Impact Assessments
Paper on the issues raised by the EDPS’ own-initiative investigation into European institutions’, bodies’, offices’ and agencies’ (‘EU institutions’) use of Microsoft products and services.
Read Paper and Press Release.
The EDPS presents its 2020-2024 Strategy 'Shaping a Safer Digital Future: a new Strategy for a new decade' to the public. In a connected world, where data flows across borders, solidarity within Europe, and internationally, will help to strengthen the right to data protection and make data work for people across the EU and beyond. The Strategy focuses on three pillars: foresight, action and solidarity to address digital challenges for a safer, fairer and more sustainable future.
In February 2020, as a part of a wider package of strategic documents, the European Commission published a White Paper on “Artificial Intelligence: A European approach to excellence and trust”.
This Opinion presents the EDPS views on the White Paper as a whole, as well as on certain specific aspects, such as the proposed risk-based approach, the enforcement of AI regulation or the specific requirements for the remote biometric identification (including facial recognition).
The EDPS recommendations in this opinion aim at clarifying and, where necessary, further developing the safeguards and controls with respect to protection of personal data.
24 June, EDPS-IPEN Webinar on the state of the art on encryption in PETs.
EDPS Opinion on the European Commission's Strategy for Data.
In public health, contact tracing is the process to identify individuals who have been in contact with infected persons.
The EDPS and EDPB trainees share their thoughts on the future of the EU.
The outbreak of Covid-19 is affecting our lives at an unprecedented pace. It is testing the resilience of our societies as we respond to this global crisis and try to contain its consequences, both in the short and in the long run.
Covid-19 outbreak is also testing fundamental rights to data protection and privacy. EU Member States, EU institutions and Big Tech companies are trying to explore solutions to tackle the uncontrolled spread of the virus.
As a result, the EDPS established a Covid-19 task force to follow developments and to prepare for the future of data protection and privacy after Covid-19 crisis.
The outbreak of Covid-19 is affecting our lives at an unprecedented pace. Personal data have and will continue to play an important role in the fight against the pandemic.
Introductory remarks by Wojciech Wiewiórowski at the committee for European Affairs of the senate of the Republic of France
Watch video address by Wojciech Wiewiórowski.
Read full text.
EDPS Comments to DG CONNECT of the European Commission on monitoring of COVID-19 spread.
Read the press release.
When we started our work on the Strategy for the five-year mandate of the European Data Protection Supervisor, one of the first issues we discussed was whether it should be either a living document, ready to be changed or adjusted, or a robust, future-proof plan.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the EDPS has decided to activate its Business Continuity Plan. All EDPS staff will be teleworking from 13 March to 29 May 2020. We understand it as a change of working modality, and we try to operate as normally as possible. We invite you to contact us via our general email: edps@edps.europa.eu, or using the contact form.
2019 could be described as a year of transition, across Europe and the world. The 2019 Annual Report provides an insight into all EDPS activities in 2019, which was the last year of a five-year EDPS mandate. EDPS activities therefore focused on consolidating the achievements of previous years, assessing the progress made and starting to define priorities for the future. Read the Press Release.
EDPS Opinion on the opening of negotiations for a new partnership with UK.
On 13 February, the EDPS organised a workshop to discuss and debate challenges and opportunities of AI and Facial Recognition applications in the future to come.
The event gathered more than 50 leading researchers, experts and practitioners from academia, regulators, business and civil society, to share their insights and experiences to deepen our understanding of the challenges ahead and the possible policy responses.
There was a general consensus that as AI can have a significant impact both on an individual and on society as a whole, clear red lines on certain extremely high-risk scenarios need to be defined where the essence of rights and freedoms of individuals may be at stake.
Artificial Intelligence should be used to improve our lives, individually and as a society, but such improvement should never come at the cost of our values and fundamental rights.
Closing remarks by Wojciech Wiewiórowski at CPDP 2020.
On 28 January each year, member states of the Council of Europe and EU institutions celebrate Data Protection Day. It marks the anniversary of the Council of Europe’s data protection convention, known as “Convention 108”. It was the first binding international law concerning individuals’ rights to the protection of their personal data. Happy Data Protection Day!
Read the informative leaflet.
