Source: https://pdpecho.com/tag/eu-law/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 18:45:27+00:00

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pdpEcho is kicking off 2017 with a brief catalogue of interesting recently published research that sets the tone for the new year.
First, Wolfie Christl and Sarah Spiekermann‘s report on “Networks of Control”, published last month, is a must read for anyone that wants to understand how the digital economy functions on the streams of data we all generate, while reflecting on the ethical implications of this economic model and proposing new models that would try keep the surveillance society afar. Second, a new report of the Global Commission of Internet Governance explores global governance gaps created by existing global governance structures developed in the analog age. Third, the American Academy of Sciences recently published a report with concrete proposals on how to reconcile the use of different public and private sources of data for government statistics with privacy and confidentiality. Last, a volume by Angela Daly that was recently published by Hart Publishing explores how EU competition law, sector specific regulation, data protection and human rights law could tackle concentrations of power for the benefit of users.
“Around the same time as Apple introduced its first smartphone and Facebook reached 30 million users in 2007, online advertisers started to use individual-level data to profile and target users individually (Deighton and Johnson 2013, p. 45). Less than ten years later, ubiquitous and real-time corporate surveillance has become a “convenient byproduct of ordinary daily transactions and interactions” (De Zwart et al 2014, p. 746). We have entered a surveillance society as David Lyon foresaw it already in the early 1990s; a society in which the practices of “social sorting”, the permanent monitoring and classification of the whole population through information technology and software algorithms, have silently become an everyday reality” (p. 118).
One of the realities we need to take into account when assessing this phenomenon is that “Opting out of digital tracking becomes increasingly difficult. Individuals can hardly avoid consenting to data collection without opting out of much of modern life. In addition, persons who don’t participate in data collection, who don’t have social networking accounts or too thin credit reports, could be judged as “suspicious” and “too risky” in advance” (p. 129).
The authors of the report explain that the title “Networks of Control” is justified “by the fact that there is not one single corporate entity that by itself controls today’s data flows. Many companies co-operate at a large scale to complete their profiles about us through various networks they have built up” (p. 7). They also explain that they want to close a gap created by the fact that “the full degree and scale of personal data collection, use and – in particular – abuse has not been scrutinized closely enough”, despite the fact that “media and special interest groups are aware of these developments for a while now” (p. 7).
What I found valuable in the approach of the study is that it also brings forward a topic that is rarely discussed when analysing Big Data, digital tracking and so on: the attempt of such practices to change behaviour at scale. “Data richness is increasingly used to correct us or incentivize us to correct ourselves. It is used to “nudge” us to act differently. As a result of this continued nudging, influencing and incentivation, our autonomy suffers (p. 7)”.
A chapter authored by Professor Sarah Spiekermann explores the ethical implications of the networks of control. She applies three ethical normative theories to personal data markets: “The Utilitarian calculus, which is the original philosophy underlying modern economics (Mill 1863/1987). The Kantian duty perspective, which has been a cornerstone for what we historically call “The Enlightenment” (Kant 1784/2009), and finally Virtue Ethics, an approach to life that originates in Aristotle’s thinking about human flourishing and has seen considerable revival over the past 30 years (MacIntyre 1984)” (p. 131).
Methodologically, the report is based on “a systematic literature review and analysis of hundreds of documents and builds on previous research by scholars in various disciplines such as computer science, information technology, data security, economics, marketing, law, media studies, sociology and surveillance studies” (p. 10).
The report shows that “as of July 2016, more than 3.4 billion people were estimated to have joined the global population of Internet users, a population with fastest one-year growth in India (a stunning 30 percent) followed by strong double digit growth in an assortment of countries across Africa (Internet Live Stats 2016a; 2016b)” (p. 1).
“Yet the world’s newest users have less freedom to speak their minds, gain access to information or organize around civil, political and religious interests than those who first logged on to the Internet five years ago” (p. 1).
Within this framework, the report explores the fact that “ICT sector companies have played a prominent role in Internet governance organizations, mechanisms and processes over the past two decades. Companies in other sectors also play an expanding role in global governance. Multinational companies wield more power than many governments over not only digital information flows but also the global flow of goods, services and labour: onethird of world trade is between corporations, and another third is intra-firm, between subsidiaries of the same multinational enterprise” (p. 5).
The authors also look at the tensions between governments and global companies with regard to requests for access to data, to weaken encryption and facilitate censorship in ways that contravene international human rights standards.
3. “Innovations in Federal Statistics: Combining Data Sources While Protecting Privacy”, by National Academy of Sciences [OPEN ACCESS].
The tension between privacy on one hand and statistical data and censuses on the other hand compelled the German Constitutional Court to create in the ’80s “the right to informational self-determination”. Could statistics bring a significant reform of such sort to the US? Never say never.
According to epic.org, the US National Academy of Sciences recently published a report that examines how disparate federal data sources can be used for policy research while protecting privacy.
The study shows that in the decentralised US statistical system, there are 13 agencies whose mission is primarily the creation and dissemination of statistics and more than 100 agencies who engage in statistical activities. There is a need for stronger coordination and collaboration to enable access to and evaluation of administrative and private-sector data sources for federal statistics. For this purpose, the report advices that “a new entity or an existing entity should be designated to facilitate secure access to data for statistical purposes to enhance the quality of federal statistics. Privacy protections would have to be fundamental to the mission of this entity“. Moreover, “the data for which it has responsibility would need to have legal protections for confidentiality and be protected using the strongest privacy protocols offered to personally identifiable information while permitting statistical use”.
One of the conclusions of the report is that “Federal statistical agencies should adopt modern database, cryptography, privacy-preserving and privacy-enhancing technologies”.
“This monograph examines how European Union law and regulation address concentrations of private economic power which impede free information flows on the Internet to the detriment of Internet users’ autonomy. In particular, competition law, sector specific regulation (if it exists), data protection and human rights law are considered and assessed to the extent they can tackle such concentrations of power for the benefit of users.
Using a series of illustrative case studies, of Internet provision, search, mobile devices and app stores, and the cloud, the work demonstrates the gaps that currently exist in EU law and regulation. It is argued that these gaps exist due, in part, to current overarching trends guiding the regulation of economic power, namely neoliberalism, by which only the situation of market failure can invite ex ante rules, buoyed by the lobbying of regulators and legislators by those in possession of such economic power to achieve outcomes which favour their businesses.
Enjoy the read! (Unless the reform of the EU e-Privacy rules is taking much of your time these days – in this case, bookmark the reports of interest and save them for later).
The Court of Justice of the European Union (‘the Court’ or ‘CJEU’) gave a second judgment this week on the compatibility of data retention measures with the fundamental rights of persons as guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (in Joined Cases C-203/15 and C-698/15 Tele2Sverige). The Court confirmed all its findings from the earlier Digital Rights Ireland judgment and took the opportunity to clarify and nuance some of its initial key-findings (for an analysis of the DRI judgment, see my article published in 2015).
The two cases that were joined by the Court emerged in the fallout of the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive by the CJEU in the DRI judgment. Even if that Directive was declared invalid for breaching fundamental rights, most of the national laws that transposed it in the Member States were kept in force invoking Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive. This Article provided for an exception to the rule of ensuring confidentiality of communications, which allowed Member States to “inter alia, adopt legislative measures providing for the retention of data for a limited period justified on the grounds laid down in this paragraph”. What the Member States seem to have disregarded with their decision to keep national data retention laws in force was that the same paragraph, last sentence, provided that “all the measures referred to in this paragraph (including data retention – my note) shall be in accordance with the general principles of Community law” (see §91 and §92 of the judgment). Respect for fundamental rights is one of those principles.
The Tele2Sverige case was initiated by a telecommunications service provider that followed the decision of the Court in DRI and stopped to retain data, because it considered that the national law requiring it do retain data was in breach of EU law. The Swedish authorities did not agree with this interpretation and this is how the Court was given the opportunity to clarify the relationship between national data retention law and EU law after the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive. The Watson case originates in the UK, was initiated by individuals and refers to the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014(DRIPA).
there is no requirement that the data concerned should be retained within the European Union (§2 of the operative part of the judgment).
There are a couple of remarkable findings of the Court in the Tele2Sverige/Watson judgment, analysed below. Brace yourselves for a long post. But it’s worth it. I’ll be looking at (1) how indiscriminate retention of metadata interferes with freedom of speech, (2) why data retention is merely an exception of the principle of confidentiality of communications and must not become the rule, (3) why the Court considers retaining on a generalised basis metadata is a far-reaching intrusion in the right to private life, (4) what is “targeted retention” and under what conditions the Court sees it acceptable and, finally (5) what is the impact of all of this on the Privacy Shield and PNR schemes.
Even though none of the preliminary ruling questions asked the Court to look at compliance of national data retention measures also in the light of Article 11 Charter (freedom of speech), the Court did so by its own motion.
“it is not inconceivable that the retention of the data in question might have an effect on the use, by subscribers or registered users, of the means of communication covered by that directive and, consequently, on their exercise of the freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 11 of the Charter”.
However, it never analysed if that was the case. In §70, the Court just stated that, after finding the Directive to be invalid because it was not compliant with Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter, “there is no need to examine the validity of Directive 2006/24 in the light of Article 11 of the Charter”.
This time, the Court developed its argument. It started by underlying that data retention legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings “raises questions relating to compatibility not only with Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter, which are expressly referred to in the questions referred for a preliminary ruling, but also with the freedom of expression guaranteed in Article 11 of the Charter” (§92).
The Court continued by emphasising that the importance of freedom of expression must be taken into consideration when interpreting Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive “in the light of the particular importance accorded to that freedom in any democratic society” (§93). “That fundamental right (freedom of expression), guaranteed in Article 11 of the Charter, constitutes one of the essential foundations of a pluralist, democratic society, and is one of the values on which, under Article 2 TEU, the Union is founded” (§93), it continues.
The operative part of the judgment clearly states that Articles 7, 8 and 11 of the Charter preclude data retention legislation such as that in the main proceedings.
“That provision cannot, therefore, permit the exception to that obligation of principle and, in particular, to the prohibition on storage of data, laid down in Article 5 of Directive 2002/58, to become the rule, if the latter provision is not to be rendered largely meaningless” (§89).
In any case, the Court adds, all exceptions adopted pursuant to Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive must be in accordance with the general principles of EU law, which include the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter (§91) and must strictly have one of the objectives enumerated in Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive (§90).
As for the second derogation to the principle, the Court looks at recitals 22 and 26 of the ePrivacy Directive and affirms that the retention of traffic data is permitted “only to the extent necessary and for the time necessary for the billing and marketing of services and the provision of value added services. (…) As regards, in particular, the billing of services, that processing is permitted only up to the end of the period during which the bill may be lawfully challenged or legal proceedings brought to obtain payment. Once that period has elapsed, the data processed and stored must be erased or made anonymous” (§85).
The Court observed that the national data retention laws at issue in the main proceedings “provides for a general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data of all subscribers and registered users relating to all means of electronic communication, and that it imposes on providers of electronic communications services an obligation to retain that data systematically and continuously, with no exceptions” (§97).
The data retained is metadata and is described in detail in §98. The Court confirmed its assessment in DRI that metadata “taken as a whole, is liable to allow very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained, such as everyday habits, permanent or temporary places of residence, daily or other movements, the activities carried out, the social relationships of those persons and the social environments frequented by them” (§99). It also added that this data “provides the means (…) of establishing a profile of the individuals concerned, information that is no less sensitive, having regard to the right to privacy, than the actual content of communications” (§99).
The Court went further to emphasise that this kind of undiscriminating gathering of data represents a “very far-reaching” and “particularly serious” interference in the fundamental rights to private life and protection of personal data (§100). Moreover, “he fact that the data is retained without the subscriber or registered user being informed is likely to cause the persons concerned to feel that their private lives are the subject of constant surveillance” (§100).
The Court indicates that such a far-reaching interference can only be justified by the objective of fighting serious crime (§102). And even in this case, the objective of fighting serious crime does not justify in itself “general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data” (§103). The measures must, in addition, be strictly necessary to achieve this objective (§106).
it “covers, in a generalised manner, all subscribers and registered users and all means of electronic communication as well as all traffic data, provides for no differentiation, limitation or exception according to the objective pursued”.
“It is comprehensive in that it affects all persons using electronic communication services, even though those persons are not, even indirectly, in a situation that is liable to give rise to criminal proceedings”.
It “applies even to persons for whom there is no evidence capable of suggesting that their conduct might have a link, even an indirect or remote one, with serious criminal offences”.
“it does not provide for any exception, and consequently it applies even to persons whose communications are subject, according to rules of national law, to the obligation of professional secrecy”.
the retention period adopted, to what is strictly necessary” (§108).
“lay down clear and precise rules governing the scope and application of such a data retention measure and imposing minimum safeguards, so that the persons whose data has been retained have sufficient guarantees of the effective protection of their personal data against the risk of misuse.
indicate in what circumstances and under which conditions a data retention measure may, as a preventive measure, be adopted, thereby ensuring that such a measure is limited to what is strictly necessary” §109().
Other conditions that need to be fulfilled for a data retention legislation to be considered compatible with fundamental rights are indicated directly or indirectly by the Court in further paragraphs.
persons who could, for other reasons, contribute, through their data being retained, to fighting crime” (§106).
“meet objective criteria, that establish a connection between the data to be retained and the objective pursued. In particular, such conditions must be shown to be such as actually to circumscribe, in practice, the extent of that measure and, thus, the public affected” (§110).
“be based on objective evidence which makes it possible to identify a public whose data is likely to reveal a link, at least an indirect one, with serious criminal offences, and to contribute in one way or another to fighting serious crime or to preventing a serious risk to public security” (§111).
“lay down clear and precise rules indicating in what circumstances and under which conditions the providers of electronic communications services must grant the competent national authorities access to the data. (…) a measure of that kind must be legally binding under domestic law” (§117).
“lay down the substantive and procedural conditions governing the access of the competent national authorities to the retained data” (§118).
provide that data must be “retained within the European Union” (§122).
provide for “the irreversible destruction of the data at the end of the data retention period” (§122).
must “ensure review, by an independent authority, of compliance with the level of protection guaranteed by EU law with respect to the protection of individuals in relation to the processing of personal data, that control being expressly required by Article 8(3) of the Charter” (§123).
“can be granted, in relation to the objective of fighting crime, only to the data of individuals suspected of planning, committing or having committed a serious crime or of being implicated in one way or another in such a crime” (§119). [The Court refers here to the ECtHR cases of Zacharov and Szabo, after a long series of privacy related cases where it did not refer at all to the ECtHR case-law].
must be subject to “a prior review carried out either by a court or by an independent administrative body” (…) “the decision of that court or body should be made following a reasoned request by those authorities submitted, inter alia, within the framework of procedures for the prevention, detection or prosecution of crime” (§120). The only exception for the prior review are “cases of validly established urgency” (§120).
must be notified by authorities to the persons affected “under the applicable national procedures, as soon as that notification is no longer liable to jeopardise the investigations being undertaken by those authorities. That notification is, in fact, necessary to enable the persons affected to exercise, inter alia, their right to a legal remedy” (§121).
must be restricted solely to fighting serious crime (§125).
This judgment could have indirect effects on the “Privacy Shield” and slightly more immediate effects on Passenger Name Records schemes.
The indirect effect on the Privacy Shield and on all other adequacy schemes could only manifest in the context of a challenge of such transfer instruments before the CJEU. The seriousness with which the Court of Justice detailed all conditions that must be met by a legislative measure providing for a particular processing of personal data to be compliant with the fundamental rights to private life and to the protection of personal data strengthen the condition of “essentially equivalence”.
In other words, it will be difficult to convince the Court that a third country that allows collection of metadata (and all the more so content of communications) on a large scale and access to that data which is not made under the supervision of an independent authority, provides an adequate level of protection that would lawfully allow transfers of data from the EU to that third country. (For comparison, the CJEU referred to the Digital Rights Ireland case for 8 times and in key findings in its judgment in Schrems).
As for PNR schemes, the effects may come sooner and more directly, as we are waiting for the Court’s Opinion in Avis 1/15 on the compliance of the EU-PNR Canada agreement with fundamental rights. It is to be expected that the Court will copiously refer back to its new list of conditions for access by authorities to retained personal data when looking at how all PNR data is directly transferred by companies to law enforcement authorities in a third country, with no limitations.

References: CJEU 
 §91
 §92
 §70
 §98
 §109
 CJEU