The EDPS, Wojciech Wiewiórowski, considers that Europol’s current practices collect a large amount of personal data about people who are not suspected of crime. According to Wiewiórowski, Europol is trying to justify mass surveillance in the same way as the US NSA.
European The EDPS has instructed the police organization of the EU Member States, Europol, to delete large amounts of personal data from its databases. The EDPS informed about the decision in its bulletin.
According to the Commissioner, Europol is in breach of the rules by mass-collecting personal data and related data, the content of which it does not have precise information, as the stored data will not be analyzed until it is used in an investigation.
According to the decision, Europol would in future have to delete unanalysed personal data six months after their collection. The new policy applies to individuals who have not been shown to be involved in criminal activity. One year has been given to implement the decision.
Europol shall work to minimize data (engl. data minimization) and collect and process only personal data that is relevant to its activities.
About the decision reported by the British newspaper The Guardian states, on the basis of the documents it has seen, that the Europol database in question is at least four petabytes in size.
The amount of data can be compared, for example, to the storage space of a smartphone, which is often 64 gigabytes. In this case, more than 15,000 smartphones are needed to achieve one petabyte. Europol’s database, four petabytes, would thus correspond to more than 60,000 smartphones.
According to The Guardian, the database contains, among other things, information transmitted by national police authorities and information obtained by Europol from the mass surveillance of mobile phones of migrants entering Europe.
the European Commission has submitted Reforms to Europol’s intelligence powers that, according to The Guardian, would allow for greater retention of personal data and the collection of customer data from private companies.
“Police authorities need tools, resources and time to analyze data that has been collected through legitimate means. Europol is the player in Europe that supports national police forces in this huge task, ”commented the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. Ylva Johansson.
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According to the Commissioner, Europol is in breach of the rules by mass-collecting personal data and related data, the content of which it does not have precise information about.
Europol denies any wrongdoing and questions the EDPS ‘interpretation of the provisions on the retention of personal data.
According to the organization, the decision now limits Europol’s ability to carry out extensive data analysis and helps Member States investigate significant criminal cases.
“These include terrorism, cybercrime, international drug trafficking and child exploitation. In such cases, Europol’s support often lasts for more than six months, ”writes Europol in its opinion.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski lead the organization of the European Data Protection Supervisor. According to him, the six-month time window should allow Europol to fulfill its obligations to EU Member States while protecting people’s privacy.
In a recent European Parliament hearing, Wiewiórowski compared Europol to the US NSA, describing how the United States defended Edward Snowden Prism reconnaissance program revealed by According to Wiewiórowski, Europol uses similar arguments to justify mass surveillance in Europe.
“After the Prism scandal, the NSA told Europeans that it would not process the data it collected. It would only collect and process the data if it was necessary for an ongoing investigation. This is not in line with the European idea of data protection.”
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