By Peter Schaar, Chairman, European Academy for Freedom of Information and Data Protection, Berlin   What the consequences of the the UK Brexit referendum are for data protection currently cannot be said conclusively. Considerable uncertainties remain until the end of the upcoming exit negotiations at least. Unless specific arrangements on data protection are made between the EU and the UK, the United Kingdom will be seen from the EU perspective as a regular third country like any ...

Update on the Legal opinion of the Legal Service of the EP (18 February 2016) The Legal Service of the European Parliament issued on 14 February 2016 a legal opinion on the draft EU-US Umbrella agreement concerning the protection of personal data and cooperation between law enforcement authorities in the EU and the US. In this paper, published recently on the Website of Statewatch the Legal ...

The results of the trilogue of the EU institutions (European Parliament, Commission and Council) on the data protection reform package is an important milestone on the way into the global information society. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will replace 28 different data protection laws of the Member States. The reach of the new legal framework extends beyond the European Union. Even companies with headquarters outside the EU will have to comply with the GDPR so far they are ...

By Peter Schaar, chairman of the EAID, former German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (2003-2013) Amsterdam is a city of famous bridges. These days Amsterdam as well might become the city of privacy bridges. The Dutch data protection authority has been hosting the ...

Keynote on the conference „New Directions in Cyber Security“ Berlin, 1 October 2015 Safe Harbor - No Future? How the General Data Protection Regulation and the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will influence transatlantic data transfers Ladies and gentlemen, One week ago, the Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued his ...

Update on the Legal opinion of the Legal Service of the EP (18 February 2016) The Legal Service of the European Parliament issued on 14 February 2016 a legal opinion on the draft EU-US Umbrella agreement concerning the protection of personal data and cooperation between law enforcement authorities in the EU and the US. In this paper, published recently on the Website of Statewatch the Legal ...

The Snowden revelations revealed just how far some states had departed from the guarantees of privacy enshrined in the human and civil rights agreements of the post-war era. The European Union can play the central role in setting enforceable data protection standards internationally, however resisting the logic of surveillance also depends on pressure from society, writes Peter Schaar. Read the full article in ...

I want to inform you about my las posting on facebook: "Dear friends, dear colleagues, dear facebook! This is definitely my last post on facebook. I am going to leave the service after the new facebook terms of service came into force in Europe today. They don‘t care about German an European law. As former Federal German Data Protection Commissioner I will not and I cannot accept the company‘s continued disregard for data protection and user‘s privacy which are core values of the European ...

(This blog post was translated by EDPS - Many thanks - PSch) German version French version It is certainly nothing new to say that data protection and technology go hand in hand, but at least since information was leaked by Edward Snowden we have known that the technical weaknesses of digital information and communication systems are mercilessly exploited, and not only by criminals and rogue ...

By Peter Schaar (translated by Douwe Korff) This article is a free translation of my comment for the German news service Heise Online The judgment of the CJEU on compulsory data retention is remarkable for two reasons. First, the Court essentially agrees with the critics of data retention: The general, suspicionless retention of telecommunication data is incompatible with both ...