'Police data-sharing plan will hurt privacy'

Europe's data protection chief has slammed a plan to let the continent's police forces share information, warning safeguards for the average citizen will be eroded as a result.

The plan, which would create a system to allow police forces to swap data on suspected criminals, was recently amended - and not for the better, according to the European data protection supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx.

In a document issued by the office of the EDPS, Hustinx said: "The text weakens the level of protection of the citizen... The low level of protection afforded by the proposal cannot properly serve the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice in which law enforcement information can be exchanged between police and judicial authorities disregarding national borders."

For the data-sharing system - which would allow Europe's bobbies to swap details of individuals' biometrics including fingerprints and DNA - to be adopted by the EU it must be approved by all 27 member states. And this is one reason, the EDPS believes, data protection safeguards have been watered down.

The opinion document noted: "The decision-making procedure cannot justify a lowest common denominator approach that would hinder the fundamental rights of EU citizens as well as hamper the efficiency of law enforcement."

Hustinx also criticised the "complexities" that have been introduced to the system as part of the German presidency's amendments and the differing levels of data protection that will be enforced throughout the EU.

The EDPS has now made a series of recommendations on the data-sharing system, calling for the strictures around sharing data between law authorities and third countries or private companies to be tightened; and the limitation of further uses that collected data can be put to - as well as introducing a mechanism to periodically validate and alter such data if necessary.