The New Police and Criminal Justice Data Protection Directive: A First Analysis

Abstract

Allegedly the Police and Criminal Justice Data Protection Directive (henceforth, the “Directive”) is the little-known, much overlooked part of the EU data protection reform package that stormed into the EU legislative agenda towards the end of 2015. Its counterpart, regulating all other personal data processing activities, the General Data Protection Regulation (henceforth, the “Regulation”), is undoubtedly the text that fascinated legislators, legal scholars and even journalists over the four years since their simultaneous release in first draft formats, with its numerous noteworthy novelties: the right to be forgotten, the right to data portability, data protection impact assessments, privacy by design, consistency and one-stop-shop mechanisms among EU Data Protection Authorities etc. Compared to this impressive list the text of the Directive indeed sounds mundane and unimaginative. However, we firmly believe that the repercussions it will have in the EU personal data processing scene surrounding the work of law enforcement authorities, once it comes into effect, will be fundamental and will be equally felt by everybody exactly in the same way that its famous sibling intends to do

Keywords: Data, Protection