(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

A set of new measures including biometric data from non-EU travellers are being proposed these days by the European Commission (EC). The proposals, drafted by Franco Frattini, the European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, are being put forward by the EC, arguing that the cross-border policy has to be revised to face the new challenges related to terrorism, organised crime and illegal migration.

The package proposes the creation of an entry/exit register of non-European visitors to the EU bloc that will record the dates of entry and exit of each non-EU individual admitted to the Schengen visa-free area using biometric identifiers. In cases when a person's visa has expired, an alert can be

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The Lisbon Treaty was signed in December 2007. Notwithstanding the many critics raised by this Treaty, the text, when ratified by all member States, will bring two major improvements to the EU and its citizens. First, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union will become part of the Community acquis, including its articles 7 (Respect for private and family life) and 8 (Protection of personal data). Secondly, the Treaty will allow the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights and, hence, will give EU citizens the possibility of being protected against abuses of their human rights by EU institutions. This improvement would be much welcome, especially - though not exclusively - considering the

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The nominees and winners of the Dutch Big Brother Awards 2007 showed it clearly: a proper level of data protection in The Netherlands cannot be taken for granted. A number of big projects and ongoing legislative efforts threaten the state of data protection in the Netherlands. The government shows no signs of taking critics seriously. The disinterest of the public and ease with which a majority of Dutch citizens are willing to hand over their privacy for a promise of security, led the jury of the Big Brother Awards declare the Dutch citizen the winner. Other winners were the plans for an Electronic Child Dossier, the National Railways for the RFID transit card system and De Nederlandsche

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Privacy and data protection seems not to be a hot topic for the Romanian society. The media is generally ignoring the topic, unless something related to an important public figure is making the subject out of the ordinary. The Romanian Data Protection Authority has failed in becoming a privacy public supporter and has rather emerged as a data protection controller's register. Under these general circumstances, 2007 was rather a calm year, where the main success of the government in the field of privacy - the non-adoption of the data retention law - was obtained by mistake only due to bureaucratic reasons.

a. Data retention

The first draft of the data retention law that needs to implement the EU

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

6 January 2008 was the 30th anniversary of the French Data Protection Act. But no one really cared. The only French contribution to this 2nd European DP day has been the publication by the CNIL (French DP Authority) of a poll result that it commissioned in November 2007. The poll indicates that 50% of the asked persons know the CNIL. However, only 26% of them feel they are informed well enough on their rights in terms of personal data protection, and 61% consider that the constitution of databases is breaching their right to privacy. Moreover, a former study on Internet usages conducted in June 2007 reveals that the mostly cited barrier to Internet use is the fear that personal data are not protected enough (by 29% of the Internet users and 23%

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

a. Data Retention Litigation

The Digital Rights Ireland litigation against data retention, which was started in September 2006, continues before the High Court. This action challenges both the Directive and also Ireland's domestic data retention laws. It alleges that those laws are procedurally flawed and are also in breach of the right to privacy guaranteed under the Irish Constitution and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It also argues that data retention will have a chilling effect on the Constitutional and ECHR rights to freedom of expression and association. In addition, the action argues that the tracking of the movements of any person carrying a mobile

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

a. Data Retention - a reality

15 September 2007 - data retention became a reality in Denmark. The administrative order, which sets the scope and conditions for data retention, was approved on 28 September 2006 with an implementation deadline of one year. The order, which was drafted by the Ministry of Justice, had been underway for more than four years. The Act providing for data retention was approved by the Danish Parliament already in June 2002 as part of the Danish "anti-terrorism package," which extended the scope of Section 786 of the Administration of Justice Act (Act No. 378 of 6 June 2002).

The administrative order regulates in more details the obligations of the

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

28 January is the European Data Protection Day. For the second time, in 2008, this date marks the anniversary of the Council of Europe's Convention 108, the first legally binding international instrument related to data protection.

This section of the EDRi-gram is dedicated to the European Data Protection Day and marks the main privacy developments from some European countries, as reported by EDRi members.

European data protection day activities - 28.01.2008
http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/data_protectio...