Articles for tag: DatenschutzDSGVOMaschinelles LernenPassenger Name Record (PNR)PNRPrivatsphäreSicherheit

Caution: Safeguards may appear more robust than they are

At a time when the European security architecture is evolving, and when national lawmakers must pay greater attention to an evolving set of common standards and safeguards to prevent disproportionate government access to data, it is essential to shed critical light on their implementation in actual practice. As different as the EU PNR Directive and the German legal framework are, they both include provisions that seek to prevent disproportionate government access and to ensure effective and independent review of data collection and subsequent data processing.

Passengers Name Records and Security

The EU Passenger Name Records Directive is based on the logic of preventive security. Th CJEU ruling, Ligue des droits humains, offers an opportunity for national judges to question more radically the idea of generalised preventive security that seeks to anticipate human behaviour through the creation of risk profiles and statistical correlations (instead of causality).

Machine learning and profiling in the PNR system

Automated processing of personal data, which is what Passenger Name Record data are, can lead to forms of profiling; certain individuals or groups of people are more likely to be excluded based on the transfer of their data than others. In its Passenger Name Record judgment, the CJEU extensively discusses discrimination risks, and it set a number of conditions to prevent them. Unfortunately, not all of its considerations are perfectly clear and some of the solutions the CJEU proposes are not entirely satisfactory.

„Like Handing My Whole Life Over“

On 16 February 2023, the German Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) ruled that the practice of regularly analysing data carriers, including mobile phones, by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) when registering asylum applicants is illegal (BVerwG 1 C 19.21). The judgement arrives after the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte’s (GFF) efforts to reveal this practice’s details and take legal action against its use in the asylum procedure. In this post, we briefly overview this practice and analyse this judgement and its implications. We argue that although this judgement represents an important victory for asylum seekers’ and refugees’ data protection and privacy, some controversial aspects of this practice still require clarification.

Handlungsbedarf im Gefahrenabwehrrecht

Mit einem Beschluss vom 9. Dezember 2022, bekannt geworden am 3. Februar 2023, hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht verschiedene Vorschriften des Sicherheits- und Ordnungsgesetzes von Mecklenburg-Vorpommern für verfassungswidrig und nichtig bzw. (jedenfalls) unvereinbar mit dem Grundgesetz erklärt. Im Ausgangspunkt erfasst die Entscheidung allein Regelungen des Landesrechts eines einzelnen Bundeslandes. Jedoch ergeben sich Folgefragen und ‑probleme auch für andere (landes-) gesetzliche Regelungen, zumal schon die Vorgaben aus der vorangegangenen Entscheidung zum BKA-Gesetz aus dem Jahre 2016 bislang nicht überall und durchgängig umgesetzt worden sind.

‘Inherently Repugnant’?

Indonesia has recently gained the international spotlight for criminalising sex outside marriage in its new Criminal Code. Criminalisation of sex outside marriage and cohabitation constitutes a setback for the right to privacy, which covers consensual sexual activity between adults in private. Nevertheless, the bigger picture is much more nuanced.

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.

Die Entwicklung des informationellen Trennungsprinzips

Die Bedrohungen des internationalen Terrorismus nach 9/11 haben es intensiviert, den Datenaustausch der Sicherheitsbehörden untereinander zu optimieren. Die Gesetzgebung schien dem Credo der Prävention durch Massenüberwachung zu folgen, wodurch die Trennung als Grundregel zunehmend durchlässiger zu werden scheint. Diese Entwicklungen bieten wichtige Anhaltspunkte zum Verständnis der administrativen Sicherheitsarchitektur in Deutschland.