Campaign to exercise the right to access European databases

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Throughout Europe, the data of millions of people is stored in information systems operated and checked by the police and and intelligence services as a matter of course. The various national systems are supplemented by centralized databases such as the Schengen Information System (SIS) and databases operated by Europol. In addition, the Treaty of Prüm and the “Swedish Initiative” has led to increasing automation and facilitate rapid data exchange between national systems.

We are no longer talking only about persons convicted for criminal offences. Immigrants are regularly entered in these databases – for having committed the “crime” trying to enter in a European country without obtaining prior permission, for wishing to make use of their right of asylum, or even for simply being a guest for a longer period in a European Union member state. But it is not just immigrants either. EU citizens are finding themselves entered in data retention systems for something as simple as, for example, being caught up in an ID check at a political demonstration or as a result of being ordered by the police to vacate a premises.

Facing a total “flood of information”, the interior ministers of several European countries are calling for the police authorities to be given even more powers and the technical capabilities necessary to make use and explore this “data tsunami”. “Data mining” software should simplify data analysis and provide “decision support”. Data on persons, objects and their relations is processed to be able to identify “risks” and “predict” crime and unrest even before it happens. Naturally, the relevant software is developed by the security industry, its source code and therefore its functionality kept secret.

The creation of a cross-border information network, which should “extend as far as the USA”, together with the development of technical platforms for real-time cooperation between the police authorities is one of the top priorities for European interior ministers. With the “Stockholm Programme”, due to be passed by the European Council in December 2009, these plans will officially become the rule for EU domestic policy over the next five years. Critics are warning of a “database society”.

As it becomes increasingly easy to exchange police data within the Single European Market, those who are actually affected generally have neither knowledge of nor control on the collection, processing and circulation of the data. Data protection does not figure highly in European police cooperation; a set of common standards is kept to a minimum. Issues of proportionality or prescribed data storage periods are generally ignored. Basically, what goes is what the respective national law lets you get away with. Even where a European watchdog exists, the interior ministers and police authorities have the last word. The people concerned might even find themselves having to enforce their claim to international legal protection far away from their place of residence.

Thus the danger is the normalization of uncontrolled storage and cross-referencing of data collected in one country to be continued by another country. Higher data protection standards of one country can be easily bypassed by clever officials going through countries with lower standards. And there is a very real risk of both a huge accumulation of maximum amounts of data in centralised “data warehouses”, whose sole purpose it is to enable computer-aided search for information, and the comparison of databases becoming the daily norm.

Sicherheitskonzepte bei Gipfelprotesten

Dieser Text ist der Versuch, Erfahrungen mit staatlichen Repressionsapparaten und polizeilichen Sicherheitskonzepten während ausgewählter europäischer Gipfelproteste systematisch auszuwerten und auf den G8 in Heiligendamm zu spiegeln. Dabei ziehen wir sicherlich keine endgültigen Schlussfolgerungen, können aber Tendenzen aufzeigen, die eine Rolle für zukünftige autonome Interventionen spielen.

Einige Ansätze sind uns bei der vergleichenden Analyse besonders wichtig. Wir fokussieren auf Massenproteste seit dem unbestrittenen Höhepunkt der europäischen globalisierungskritischen Bewegungen in Prag, Göteborg und Genua.

Zwar unterliegt jeder Polizeieinsatz nationalen Rahmenbedingungen. Dennoch versuchen wir, international praktizierte Muster von Repression herauszufiltern. Wir zeigen auf, dass der erfolgreiche, teils militante Widerstand weitreichende Veränderungen und eine Standardisierung europäischer Polizeiarbeit bei “polizeilichen Großlagen” zur Folge hatte. “Polizeiliche Großlagen” bezeichnen Einsätze in den Bereichen Politik oder Sport und sind in ihrem Aufbau sehr ähnlich. Weil uns radikaler Widerstand mehr am Herzen liegt als Fußball, beschränken wir uns hier auf Gipfelproteste.