Next stop for EU’s police biometric data-sharing rules – final signatures

The EU’s Prüm rules for exchanging data among police agencies have taken a large step toward being updated to include facial and DNA-profile biometrics.

The European Parliament and the European Council resolved their differences on the rules and now must adopt them.

As part of the update, officials will at least review confirmed biometric matches made by the new exchange system within 48 hours.

The revised regulation framework, known as Prüm II, covers automated data exchanges among police agencies in the Union, including Europol.

At the same time, officials have centralized data flows through the updated framework.

They also created EPRIS, or the European Police Records System, which will automatically exchange police records.

In the United Kingdom and European Union, 15 civil society organizations have come out against Prüm. Each side is arguing their case with the same points lobbed back and forth for years.

Among the concerns are the likelihood of facial false positives and the frailty of systems designed to keep the data safe.

Libertarian non-profit civil rights advocate Statewatch and 14 other organizations and academics have insisted on more public debate about the expansion of sharable data. Risks inherent in the UK’s facial recognition system grow larger when multiple states share the data, according to the group.

Prüm, created in 2008, regulates cross-border searches and access to fingerprint and DNA biometric identifiers as well as vehicle registration.

Article Topics

biometric identifiers  |  biometrics  |  data sharing  |  dna  |  facial recognition  |  police  |  Prüm