CPDP: Non-compulsory government access to data: the next frontier for surveillance reform?

Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services across Europe are increasingly processing a wide array of ‘commercially available data’ and a broad range of information they deem ‘publicly available’. The private sector entities which provide or facilitate government access to such data are often not obliged by law to do so. Unlike many modes of compelled and direct government access to data, governments’ various non-compelled acquisitions and subsequent processing of commercially and publicly available data face fewer legal restrictions and authorisation requirements and less oversight. This panel convenes experts and practitioners to shed different lights on these newer modes of public-private co-productions of surveillance. What is their relevance and what challenges arise as regards their regulation, the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms and their democratic governance?

• Has the quantity and quality of commercially and publicly available data transformed the practice of policing and intelligence as we know it?
• What room, if any, should democracies leave for voluntary or non-compelled government access to data?
• What challenges arise as regards their regulation, the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms and their democratic governance?
• How can disproportionate LEA/SIS use of commercially and publicly available data best be prevented?
• What more can be done at the regional level to help insulate democracies from illiberal practice without abandoning key tools for their security?

Event at the CPDP Website