Data Protection — European Commission

Online consultations

Working Document 1/2008 on the protection of children's personal data (General guidelines and the special case of schools)

The Article 29 Working Party adopted a working document on the protection of children's personal data (General guidelines and the special case of schools) (Working Document 147) on 18 February 2008.

This working document is concerned with the protection of information about children. It is aimed primarily at those who handle children’s personal data. In the context of schools, this will include teachers and school authorities in particular. It is also aimed at national data protection supervisory authorities, who are responsible for monitoring the processing of such data.

The Commission identified children's rights as one of its main priorities in its Communication on Strategic Objectives 2005-2009: “A particular priority must be effective protection of the rights of children, both against economic exploitation and all forms of abuse". This document, and the comments received on it, will be further examined in the light of the mainstreaming principle, as described in the European Commission's Communication “Towards an EU strategy on the Rights of the Child”.

The Article 29 Working Party invites the general public to comment on this Working Document WP 147 and to this end it has launched this public consultation until June 30th, 2008. [closed]

Contributions received

Working Document on the processing of personal data relating to health in electronic health records (EHR)

The Article 29 Working Party adopted a working document on the processing of personal data relating to health in electronic health records (EHR) (Working Document 131) on 15 February 2007.

In this Working Document the Article 29 Working Party provides guidance on the interpretation of the applicable data protection legal framework for EHR systems and explains some of the general principles. The Working Document also gives indications on the data protection requirements for setting up EHR systems, as well as the applicable safeguards.

The Article 29 Working Party invites the medical professions, all other health care professionals and persons and institutions involved in providing medical services as well as the general public to comment on this Working Document WP 131 and to this end it has launched this public consultation until June 13th, 2007. (closed)

Contributions received

Data protection issues related to RFID technology

On January 19th, the Working Party 29 adopted a Working Document on data protection issues related to RFID technology (Working document 105).

After outlining the potential use of RFID technology in various sectors, the Working Document recalls the need to comply with the basic principles set out in the EC data protection Directives (Directive 95/46/EC and Directive 2002/58EC) whenever personal data is collected using RFID technology. The paper also provides guidance to manufacturers of the technology (RFID tags, readers and applications) as well as RFID standardization bodies on their responsibility towards designing privacy compliant technology in order to enable deployers of the technology to carry out their obligations under the data protection Directive.

The Working Party wishes to give interested parties the opportunity to submit their comments to the Working Document 105 and to this end it has launched this public consultation until March 31st, 2005 [closed].

Summary (Working Party Document 111) and contributions received

Data protection issues related to intellectual property rights

The Working Party 29 has adopted a working document on data protection issues related to intellectual property rights (Working Document 104) adopted on January 18th, 2005.

The working document recalls the application of the main data protection principles contained in the data protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) in the following two scenarios: First, in the deployment of on-line services using the so-called digital management of rights systems (“DRMs”). Second, in the processing of personal data to conduct investigations of users suspected of copyright infringement.

The Working Party wishes to give interested parties the opportunity to submit their comments to the Working Document 104 and to this end it has launched this public consultation until March 31st, 2005 [closed]. The comments received by then will be posted on the present website unless a specific request not to do so is mentioned by the respondent.

Contributions received

Binding corporate rules

Official summary of the public hearing on internal codes of conduct for multinationals drafted by the Dutch Data Protection Authority

Working Document: Transfers of personal data to third countries: Applying Article 26(2) of the EU Data Protection Directive to Binding Corporate Rules for International Data Transfers.

Summary of the contributions received so far to the consultation

Videosurveillance

Within the past few years a multiplication of videosurveillance systems has been observed. This has raised a lively debate in order to identify the conditions and limitations that should apply to the installation and to the implementation of this kind of system as well as the necessary safeguards for data subjects.

Starting from the existence of a variety of different legal situations in the Member States the present working document is meant to provide an initial analysis regarding the application of Directive 95/46/EC. It has been drafted by the group established by Art. 29 of Directive 95/46/EC relating to the protection of personal data. This group is composed of European Data Protection Commissioners.

The public consultation aims to collect the opinion of interest groups on this subject. As a next step the group of European Data Protection Commissioners will possibly adopt a recommendation on this question.

Working Document 67 on the Processing of Personal Data by means of Video Surveillance