The European data protection gendarme announced on Monday January 10 that he had ordered the Europol police agency to delete from its files a large amount of information that did not respect the safeguards erected, in particular on the storage period of sensitive elements.
This concerns data transmitted by EU member countries on individuals suspected of criminal activity, said in a statement the EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor), an agency responsible for monitoring all bodies and institutions of the 'EU in this area of personal data management.
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If within six months of receipt of these data the link with criminal activity has not been proven, it is prohibited to keep them.
“
Six months for the pre-analysis and filtering of large datasets should allow Europol to respond to operational requests from EU Member States requesting technical and analytical support, while minimizing risks for the rights and freedoms of individuals
”, explained the head of the EDPS, Wojciech Wiewiorowski.
12 months to erase problematic data
Following an investigation opened in 2019, the European Data Protection Supervisor accuses Europol of having infringed its own regulations by keeping
certain data “
longer than necessary
”. He specifies having notified Europol on January 3 of the “
order to delete data concerning individuals with no established link to criminal activity
”. This is a new step after the warning sent in September 2020 on the need to put an end to this data storage considered illegal.
From now on, Europol has a period of twelve months to erase problematic data which has not yet been eradicated by January 3, 2022. The European Commission has welcomed this period offered "
by way of exemption
" by the EDPS , believing that this will give Europol "
sufficient time
" to comply with the decision. Then instructs the European Parliament and the Council (which represents the 27 EU countries) to "
provide an appropriate solution and legal clarity on the processing of big data by Europol
", also noted the European executive in a press release.
The European police agency Europol, established in The Hague in the Netherlands, assists and supports the 27 EU countries in the fight against organized crime (drugs, weapons, etc.) and terrorist networks.
With a thousand employees and 220 liaison officers around the world, it claims, on its website, support for more than 40,000 international investigations per year.
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