About FRA:
We are the independent centre of reference and excellence for promoting and protecting human rights in the EU. We help make Europe a better place to live and work. We help defend and promote the fundamental rights of all people living in the EU, including your rights. We work with stakeholders from the local to international level. Our team shares evidence-based insights and expert advice with policy- and decision-makers.
What we do:
We help policy makers to understand how they can do more for their citizens. We share our insights and raise rights awareness at the EU, national and local level.
To help safeguard the rights, values and freedoms enshrined in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, we:
- Collect and analyse law and data
- Provide independent, evidence-based advice on rights
- Identify trends by collecting and analysing comparable data
- Help better law making and implementation
- Support rights-compliant policy responses
- Strengthen cooperation and ties between fundamental rights actors
Work on rights: Data protection, privacy and new technologies
More and more of our everyday lives are online – both at work and home. Meanwhile, terror attacks intensify calls for more surveillance. Concerns grow over the safety of our privacy and personal data.
Against this background, FRA helps lawmakers and practitioners protect your rights in a connected world, including in the following areas of expertise:
- Artificial intelligence and big data
- Borders and information systems
- Data protection
- Unlawful profiling
For more information regarding our data and IG related work, please visit the following link: https://fra.europa.eu/en/themes/data-protection-privacy-and-new-technologies.
We will publish our report on artificial intelligence, big data and fundamental rights on December 14, 2020. It will assess the pros and cons for fundamental rights of using artificial intelligence and big data for public administration and business purposes. For further information on the report and/or the research conducted in this project, please visit the following link: https://fra.europa.eu/en/project/2018/artificial-intelligence-big-data-and-fundamental-rights
Relevant FRA Publications:
|
Title |
Year |
Type |
Field |
Content |
|
Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Fundamental Rights report |
14 December 2020 (upcoming) |
Report |
AI and Big Data; Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
This report will assess the pros and cons for fundamental rights of using artificial intelligence and big data for public administration and business purposes. |
|
Coronavirus pandemic in the EU – Fundamental Rights implications – Bulletin #4 |
2020 |
Short report |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
As we enter the second half of 2020, the constraints on our daily lives brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have become a frim reality. These bulletins deal with this reality from a fundamental rights perspective. |
|
Coronavirus pandemic in the EU – Fundamental Rights implications – Bulletin #2 |
2020 |
Short report |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
|
|
Coronavirus pandemic in the EU – Fundamental Rights implications – Bulletin #1 |
2020 |
Short report |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
|
|
Your rights matter: Data protection and privacy – Fundamental rights Survey |
2020 |
Report |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
The report presents data from the FRA Fundamental Rights Survey. It includes data on opinions and experiences of people in the European Union linked to data protection and technology. |
| Public Consultation on the European Commission’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence – a European Approach / Contribution by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights |
2020 |
Contribution EC White Paper |
AI and Big Data; Data protection, privacy and new technologies | FRA's contribution to the consultation on the European Commission's White Paper on artificial intelligence. |
|
2020 |
Paper |
Security - Data protection, privacy and new technologies – Justice, victims’ rights and judicial cooperation |
This paper presents peoples’ concerns and experiences relating to security. It covers worry about crime, including terrorism and online fraud; experience of cyber-harassment; and concern about illegal access to data. |
|
|
Fundamental Rights Report 2020
|
2020 |
Opinion/ Report |
General; Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2020 reviews major developments in the EU between January and December 2019, and outlines FRA’s opinions thereon. Noting both achievements and remaining areas of concern concerning fundamental rights, it provides insights into the main issues shaping fundamental rights debates across the EU. |
|
2019 |
Opinion |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies - Security |
This Opinion aims to inform the European Parliament’s position on the legislative proposal for a Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online, presented by the European Commission on 12 September 2018. | |
|
Facial recognition technology: fundamental rights considerations in the context of law enforcement |
2019 |
Paper |
AI, data protection, justice |
Examples of national law enforcement authorities in the EU using facial recognition technology are sparse – but several are testing its potential. This paper therefore looks at the fundamental rights implications of relying on live FRT, focusing on its use for law enforcement and border-management purposes. |
|
Data quality and artificial intelligence – mitigating bias and error to protect fundamental rights |
2019 |
Paper |
AI and big data - Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
This paper sets out to contribute to the many ongoing policy discussions around AI and big data by highlighting one aspect that needs attention from a fundamental rights perspective; namely the awareness and avoidance of poor data quality. It does not aim at explaining how to use high quality data, but how to become aware of and avoid using low quality data. |
|
Hate crime recording and data collection practice across the EU |
2018 |
Report |
Hate crime, Data Collection |
This report provides rich and detailed information on hate crime recording and data collection systems across the EU, including any systemic cooperation with civil society. |
|
Preventing unlawful profiling today and in the future: a guide |
2018 |
Guide |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies – AI and big data – and others |
This guide explains what profiling is, the legal frameworks that regulate it, and why conducting profiling lawfully is both necessary to comply with fundamental rights and crucial for effective policing and border management. The guide also provides practical guidance on how to avoid unlawful profiling in police and border management operations. |
|
2018 |
Paper |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies – Equality, non-discrimination and racism |
With enormous volumes of data generated every day, more and more decisions are based on data analysis and algorithms. This can bring welcome benefits, such as consistency and objectivity, but algorithms also entail great risks. A FRA focus paper looks at how the use of automation in decision making can result in, or exacerbate, discrimination. |
|
|
2018 |
Paper |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies – Equality, non-discrimination and racism |
This focus paper specifically deals with discrimination, a fundamental rights area particularly affected by technological developments. |
|
|
2018 |
Handbook/ Guide/ Manual |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
The rapid development of information technology has exacerbated the need for robust personal data protection, the right to which is safeguarded by both European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) instruments. Safeguarding this important right entails new and significant challenges as technological advances expand the frontiers of areas such as surveillance, communication interception and data storage. This handbook is designed to familiarise legal practitioners not specialised in data protection with this emerging area of the law. |
|
|
2018 |
Summary |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies - Justice, victims’ rights and judicial cooperation |
With terrorism, cyber-attacks and sophisticated cross-border criminal networks posing growing threats, the work of intelligence services has become more urgent, complex and international. Such work can strongly interfere with fundamental rights, especially privacy and data protection. While continuous technological advances potentially exacerbate the threat of such interference, effective oversight and remedies can curb the potential for abuse. |
|
|
Under watchful eyes – biometrics, EU IT-systems and fundamental rights |
2018 |
Report |
Borders and information systems – Asylum, Migration and borders - Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
This report outlines the fundamental rights implications of collecting, storing and using biometric and other data in EU IT systems in the area of asylum and migration. |
|
2017 |
Report/ Paper/ Summary |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
This report is FRA’s second publication addressing a European Parliament request for in-depth research on the impact of surveillance on fundamental rights. It updates FRA’s 2015 legal analysis on the topic, and supplements that analysis with field-based insights gained from extensive interviews with diverse experts in intelligence and related fields, including its oversight. |
|
|
Fundamental rights and the interoperability of EU information systems: borders and security |
2017 |
Report |
Borders and information systems – Asylum, Migration and borders - Data protection, privacy and new technologies |
This publication aims to support the work of the high-level expert group on information systems and interoperability by highlighting ways to address fundamental rights challenges. |
|
Surveillance by intelligence services – Volume I: Member States’ legal framework |
2015 |
Report |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies - Justice, victims’ rights and judicial cooperation |
This report, drafted in response to the European Parliament’s call for thorough research on fundamental rights protection in the context of surveillance, maps and analyses the legal frameworks on surveillance in place in EU Member States. |
|
2015 |
Summary |
Data protection, privacy and new technologies - Justice, victims’ rights and judicial cooperation - Security |
In April 2014, the European Parliament requested the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) “to undertake in–depth research on the protection of fundamental rights in the context of surveillance”. This summary presents FRA’s main research findings, which are published in full in the report entitled Surveillance by intelligence services: fundamental rights safeguards and remedies in the EU – Mapping Member States’ legal frameworks. |
How to reach us:
FRA is Vienna based. Our contact details are:
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
A – 1040 Vienna
P: +43 1 580 30 – 0
F: +43 1 503 13 85
FRA can also be contacted and/or followed via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube or Instagram.