 |
 |
EU police privacy measures 'welcome but weak'
October 5, 2005 3:07 PM
Commenting on the European Commission proposal just adopted for rules on protection of personal data exchanged by EU law enforcement agencies, Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Sarah Ludford said:
"There is an urgent need for cross-border access police access to databases to be framed by privacy rules, instead of the present free-for-all. So, while 10 years overdue, this proposed measure is strongly to be welcomed."
"But the proposed measure still has whopping loopholes which MEPs must seek to close off: access by security and intelligence services is not constrained; Member States can opt out at their own discretion; and if we go by the record on air passenger data, the checks on exchange with third countries like Russia or the US will be a dead letter."
"In addition, the scope of the measure is so wide that people could be dragged into the net of data exchange even if they are just a contact or associate of a potential witness!"
Note:
For 10 years there has been a data protection regime for the business sector, and the European Parliament has been urging for long time that we needed similar protection in the growing area of cross-border cooperation on crime and terrorism. Member States want police to be able to access databases set up not only specifically for law enforcement purposes (eg police records, DNA) , but also immigration and telecoms ones.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats