EU data watchdog to Europol: You've helped yourself to too much data

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has ordered European Union law enforcement agency Europol to delete any data it has on individuals that's over six months old, provided there's no link to criminal activity. EDPS says it probed Europol's collection of large datasets for strategic and operational analysis from …

[Eclectic Man]

Rule of Law

Data collection on private citizens seems to be quite the thing after GCHQ was recently criticised.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/10/ipco_report_2020/

See also:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/10/a-data-black-hole-europol-ordered-to-delete-vast-store-of-personal-data

Looks like every 'law enforcement' organisation really wants to be above the law themselves. trouble is, when Robert Mark was appointed to a senior position in the Metropolitan Police he sated that the Palin-clothes division of the Met was "the most corrupt organisation in London". So these agencies really do need to consider how a corrupt officer or employee might behave with access to all that data, and how to reduce the chances of internal corruption (not holding my breath).

[Gordon 10]

Re: Rule of Law

I came here to post the Guardian article too. One of the TL;DR aspects seem to be that Europol trying to kick the can down the road in order for some potential legislation to get through the EU parliament that absolves them of a lot of the Privacy requirements.

I hope EDCP comes down hard on them. Spooks gonna spook otherwise. Rozzers gonna rozzer.

[Potemkine!]

I hope EDPS won't bend under the political pressure that will be high. Cops have files on politicians.

[fidodogbreath]

"Deleted" nudge nudge wink wink

(EDPS) has ordered European Union law enforcement agency Europol to delete any data it has on individuals that's over six months old, provided there's no link to criminal activity.

I zapped the data

But I did not zap the backup drive

(Apologies to Bob Marley)

[Anonymous Coward]

Something is better than Nothing

All intelligence agencies think they're above the law and I don't have high hopes for this reining them in.

But unlike the US and UK, at least this is an official body (rather than The Guardian or The Washington Post) taking them to task.

[Cederic]

Re: Something is better than Nothing

In the UK an official body didn't need to tell them, as it was already against the law.

Not that the Home Office cared.

https://news.sky.com/story/only-dozens-of-images-deleted-from-police-database-11247282

[StrangerHereMyself]

Scary

What's even scarier is that the European Commission for law enforcement is trying to get a law approved that retroactively legalizes Europol's data grab. Europol seems to have the aspiration to become Europe's NSA in terms of mass surveillance of its citizens.

I believe we should ban our intelligence agencies from spying on our own citizens. If they want to hone their mass surveillance skill they can do that on non-western populations.

[BPontius]

U.S has company

So the U.S Intel and Law Enforcement aren't alone in their abuse of information gathering. But it is a crime if a citizen abuses their system(s) or information, shoe on the other foot kind of thing. U.S said we won't live in fear after 9/11, but all their actions and restrictions are reactions to the fear of another terrorist attack. Even though their data collecting methodology and analysis methods have proven to be ineffective and counter productive, they repeat the same behavior and mentality. No charges or terminations occur when their employees abuse the access of systems and information, FBI and the years of FISA database abuses, NSA employees spying on exes. But all are out for blood for Snowden, saying he can come back and stand trial to explain his crime, ignoring the fact that the defendant is not allowed to enter any kind of explanation or defense or testify for the crime of espionage.