Who Watches the Watchmen?

Datenschutzrechtliche Anforderungen an Überwachungssysteme

Abstract

Monitoring systems can be used by both private and public bodies. The Euro­pean legislator created the legal basis and limits with the General Data Protection Regu­lation (GDPR; Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and the Directive on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties (Directive (EU) 2016/680). These also provide control and law enforcement possibilities for the data protection supervisory authorities. The gran­ting of sufficient transparency is a central issue, especially in the area of video surveillance. Based on the discussion of the legal conformity of the data protection requirements them­selves, the way in which information is provided is debated in this field. Here, the potenti­al of data protection regulations remains largely unexploited.