The European Data Protection Supervisor’s Annual Report 2006 has been published.
Eurodac is a (First Pillar) European fingerprint database for identifying asylum seekers and irregular border-crossers and according to a 2004 Commission leaflet designed solely to identify asylum seekers. The EDPS is the competent authority that monitors the activities of Eurodac’s Central Unit.
Reflecting the data protection rules to safeguard the rights of the data subject to access his/her own data, Article 18 paragraph 2 of the Eurodac regulation provides for a possibility to conduct ‘special searches’ on request of the person concerned whose data are stored in the central database.
The number of “special searches” ranged from 1 to 611 across all Member States in 2004. The important increase compared to last year was mainly due to two Member States while a few other Member States continued to apply this provision frequently. The surprisingly high numbers of such transactions in 2005 varied from zero to 781 per Member State.
This category of transactions has been used extensively by some states; the figures did not match the actual number of requests for access made by individuals. This raised the question of their actual use.
The second phase of the Eurodac supervision — an in-depth security audit — started at the end of September 2006.
In application of Regulation (EC) No 2004/46, the EDPS requested ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) to provide contacts with national experts in the Member States and to deliver advice on the methodology of the security audit. An audit team consisting of EDPS, German and French experts, has been set up. Based on a detailed and interactive presentation of the system and the situation given by the Eurodac helpdesk, the audit team adopted the IT-Grundschutz methodology developed by the BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik) in order to conduct this audit under the mandate of the EDPS. The final report of the audit is expected in the spring of 2007…
A proposal by Germany to also open up for law enforcement the databases of Eurodac was discussed at a 12/13 April 2007 meeting of the Police Cooperation Working Party.
2 responses so far ↓
F. David // June 13, 2007 at 11:12 pm
This is interesting. It may concern every asylum seekers however I’m still curious about what a “special search” means. Are there more information stored in Eurodac than expected ???
frontexwatcher // June 17, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I think the problem is there are “more users”, unidentified agencies of EU Member States, illegally accessing the Eurodac database, not really more data.
“Special search” is just the name for the category of asylum seekers or illegal foreigners checking for their own data on Eurodac. Somebody abuses this category (and is protocolled in the act) supposedly because under other categories, searches only get a hit/ nohit.
The obvious questions: Who does it? And Why?
were asked by MEP Sarah Ludford to the European Commission in 2005 already and left unanswered, basically:
http://sarahludford.org.uk/speeches/000097.html?PHPSESSID=4a730478564cae3164a80ca5
It could be law enforcement. Or intelligence services. Or something trivial like a technical work-around (yeah, I don’t believe that either…).
Technical Specifications for the Eurodac System (Romania):
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/tender/data/d18/AOF61918.pdf
To cite the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on improved effectiveness, enhanced interoperability and synergies among European databases in the area of Justice and Home Affairs of 2005:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!CELEXnumdoc&numdoc=52005DC0597&lg=en
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