This year I organise together with Diana Dimitrova, a legal researcher from the KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law, a panel at the Computer, Privacy & Data Protection conference in Brussels. Five panelists from different backgrounds will discuss how to integrate privacy and data protection in modern border control.
Border control authorities have been using more advanced technologies, such as document readers, databases (e.g. SIS II), biometric passports, e-gates for Automated Border Control (ABC). While this “infrastructure” is visible, the data processing behind it and its impact on people’s rights to privacy and data protection is less visible.
Parallel to the technology developments, the legal framework in the EU has also advanced. Privacy and data protection have been recognized as fundamental rights and have become primary law. This has increased the importance of compliance with the privacy and data protection framework, which goes beyond ensuring that the data are kept secure. Do these new border control technologies respect the legal framework, including provisions like necessity and proportionality? What improvements can be made? Does the data processing affect other rights as well?
You can attend the panel (funded by the FastPass project) on Thursday the 28th of January at 15.30 o’clock in the Petite Halle, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels.
