Data protection & privacy

Safeguarding the security of its citizens whilst guaranteeing fundamental rights is a key issue for the EU. As an EU agency, data protection and privacy are important thematic areas of FRA’s work.

FRA helps the EU to find the right balance between security and fundamental rights. It does this by examining data protection measures for their compliance with other fundamental rights, such as non-discrimination. Through its socio-legal approach to data collection, the agency carries out research that encompasses both fieldwork and legal analysis of data protection and related fundamental rights issues. The results of our research serve to inform both policy makers and practitioners working on these issues.

Historically, the EU has played a crucial role in driving the development and introduction of national data protection law in a number of legal systems in which such legislation was not previously in place. A 1995 EU directive on the protection of individuals regarding the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data was a vital instrument in this respect. More recently, the Commission introduced proposals in 2012 for the most far-reaching reform of data protection legislation in the EU since 1995.

Data protection is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 8 of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is distinct from the respect for private and family life contained in Article 7. This feature sets the EU Charter apart from other major human rights documents which, for the most part, treat the protection of personal data as an extension of the right to privacy.
 

Latest news View all

28/01/2013

Marking Data Protection Day

Each year Data Protection Day on 28 January aims to raise public awareness about the mass of data that is collected and processed on an everyday basis, and what rights citizens have to data privacy.

Latest projects View all

Status: 
Ongoing

Handbook on European data protection case law

FRA will produce a handbook, in partnership with the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which will present and explain European data protection law in a straightforward way for those working in this area.

Latest publications View all

June
2012

Fundamental rights: challenges and achievements in 2011

Annual report
To secure and safeguard the fundamental rights of everyone in the European Union (EU), the EU and its 27 Member States pressed forward with a number of initiatives in 2011. This report chronicles the positive developments made in 2011 as well as the challenges facing the EU and its Member States in the field of fundamental rights.
Cover of the Report: Data Protection in the European Union: the role of National Data Protection Authorities
May
2010

Data Protection in the European Union: the role of National Data Protection Authorities (Strengthening the fundamental rights architecture in the EU II)

Report - comparative
The EU plays a pioneering role in the protection of personal data. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU enshrines the right to data protection as an autonomous fundamental right. Despite the underlying importance and centrality of the right to data protection in the EU, many deficiencies are present in the data protection system. This study on data protection identifies deficiencies in the EU Member States.