Technological progress in the last few decades have made monitoring, tracking and profiling techniques easier, cheaper and more accurate. As a result, surveillance has increased in both the public sector (for law enforcement purposes and public security for example) and in the private sector (for targeted advertising for example). These practices can profoundly affect how individuals think and act, as well as other personal rights (such as freedom of expression or association). Any form of surveillance is an intrusion on the fundamental rights to the protection of personal data and to the right to privacy. It must be provided for by law and be necessary and proportionate.
The April 2016 edition of the EDPS Newsletter covers the EDPS Opinion on the EU-US "Umbrella Agreement", the launch of the EDPS Reference Library and the EDPS initiative on digital ethics and many other EDPS activities.
Guidelines on personal data and electronic communications in the EU institutions (eCommunications guidelines)
Dissemination and use of intrusive surveillance technologies
Meeting the challenges of big data, A call for transparency, user control, data protection by design and accountability
Speech given by Giovanni Buttarelli at the Vienna Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence-Security, Vienna