Articles for tag: Datenschutz, Grenzkontrolle

Frontex and Data Protection

Frontex has become notorious for its multiple fundamental rights violations, including pushbacks. The problem of fundamental rights infringements associated with the Agency has been lasting for years, leading ultimately to the resignation of the Executive Director. What I argue in this post is, first, that the fundamental right to the protection of personal data by Frontex has not yet received sufficient attention by scholars and EU institutions. Second, data protection within the Agency needs to be strengthened to prevent any future new scandals.

9. September 2022

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Inkonsequenz made in Luxemburg

In diesem Dezember jährt sich die Gründung des Europäischen Gerichtshofes zum 70. Mal. Der EuGH zelebriert diesen runden Geburtstag bereits mit dem Hashtag #CJEUin70days auf dem sozialen Netzwerk Twitter. Nicht nur diese Kampagne, sondern auch die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit des EuGHs über soziale Medien insgesamt scheint dabei nicht im Einklang zu stehen mit der eigenen Rechtsprechung des Gerichtshofs.

2. August 2022

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Enabling Digital Authoritarianism in the Name of Counterterrorism

Nigeria's transition to a digital economy is in full swing. As terrorism and violent extremism are ravaging certain parts of the country, the mounting insecurity has necessitated huge budgetary allocations to national security, giving way to a new kind of digital authoritarianism. Serious concerns have been raised regarding the misuse of collected data and arbitrary surveillance, which undermine human rights and civic freedoms.

21. Mai 2022

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GDPR Collective Litigation Against Facebook

The recent CJEU Case C-319/20, Meta Platforms Ireland provides insights on the interpretation of Article 80(2) of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR), which regulates representative actions in the data protection field. The Court of Justice specified that actions protecting general interests fall under the scope of Article 80(2) GDPR, but leaves the task unmoved to reconcile this provision with the Directive on Representative Actions (DRA).

18. Mai 2022

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Boda boda registration in Kenya

In Kenya, typical moments during which citizens' rights are limited have followed emergencies, such as terrorist attacks or the COVID-19 pandemic. It is much easier to implement personally invasive policies such as biometric identification under urgency and addressing only a section of the public. A recent incident involving motorcycle taxis in Kenya, popularly known as boda bodas, illustrates this.

17. Mai 2022

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Electronic Surveillance in a Time of Democratic Crisis

The Polish experience demonstrates how a determined populist government, using the tools available in a democracy, can in a relatively short space of time erode legal safeguards established to control state surveillance activity. The understandable secrecy surrounding the work of the security services must not create an opportunity for the abuse of powers. Surveillance without adequate control weakens democracy, leads to a distortion of its principles, and ultimately, as the ECtHR has warned, threatens its very existence.

12. April 2022

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Function creep, altered affordances, and safeguard rollbacks

Alongside the expansion of surveillance regimes, there is a parallel development of equal importance, through what could be described as safeguard rollbacks. These are different from surveillance creep, in that the aim and purpose of surveillance mandates remains largely the same, but the associated safeguards are gradually weakened. These rollbacks have generally taken place where mandates were initially put in place with strict limits to ensure proportionality and legal certainty, but where the effectiveness of those mandates are later argued to be limited due to the safeguards themselves.

11. April 2022

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Public Surveillance before the European Courts

Europe has experienced a significant expansion of state surveillance and counter-terrorism regimes, which demonstrate the increasing appetite of legislators and the executive for the normalisation of surveillance. For long, European Courts offered a powerful pushback against this trend and produced several celebrated victories for fundamental rights over surveillance. However, recent decisions by the CJEU and the ECtHR reveal a different picture, indicating a broader paradigm shift.

6. April 2022

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Schnüffel mich nicht aus

In den letzten zwanzig Jahren war Brasilien hin- und hergerissen zwischen der öffentlichen Sicherheit und der Massenüberwachung, sowie der Bekräftigung der Menschenrechte, insbesondere des Rechts auf Privatsphäre. Es hat sich eine interessante Dualität herausgebildet: Einerseits die Schaffung eines robusten Datenschutzsystems und andererseits die uneingeschränkte Akzeptanz der Gesichtserkennungstechnologie.

16. Dezember 2021

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Datenschutzvollzug vor Zentralisierung

Die Europäische Datenschutzgrundverordnung (DSGVO) gilt noch keine vier Jahre, doch schon werden erste Forderungen nach mehr europäischer Zentralisierung der mitgliedstaatlichen Datenschutzaufsichtsbehörden laut, da Teile der nationalen Datenschutzaufsichtsbehörden nicht in der Lage sind, bei Verstößen gegen die DSGVO durch Technologiekonzerne in wichtigen grenzüberschreitenden Datenverarbeitungen einzuschreiten. Muss das System der Zuständigkeiten und Zusammenarbeit der mitgliedstaatlichen Aufsichtsbehörden bereits jetzt einer grundlegenden Revision unterzogen werden?

15. Dezember 2021

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