This week an EU ‘Big Brother’ administration became almost inevitable <https://www.shoeman.eu/this-week-eu-big-brother-administration/> [...] the EU Council quietly announced this week that it has reached preliminary agreement with the European Parliament on interoperable information systems in justice and home affairs. The very blandness of the Council’s press release hides the importance of the agreement reached. The focus is of course the perennial security threat – the intention is to detect potential terrorists. The Romanian Council Presidency said today, “To make sure we detect those who pose a security threat or who are lying about their identity, competent authorities carrying out checks need to have a full picture of the person in front of them.” What will this mean in practice? More comprehensive datasets on individuals will provide EU border-control officials with a detailed picture of each individual stood in front of them at an EU border. The rationale presented by the EU Council and Commission is that this interoperability meets the threats from terrorism and migration and will only affect non-EU nationals. So all well and good, you might think. As we travel within the European Union, we can be reassured that law-enforcement authorities are delivering on their duty to ensure the safety of EU citizens. But, and it is a big but, the Council and the Security Commissioner have made clear that any new centralised database will include all new and existing databases. So the contents of the EU PNR (Passenger Name Record) will be incorporated, as will those of the Prüm database (DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registrations of EU nationals). In effect, the new datasets will apply to EU citizens as well as those from other countries. But this is unavoidable, you might say. Maybe, but is it really the sign of a healthy democracy to make every detail of each individual’s life and liberties available to every border control official? As far as I can tell, there are no ‘layered rights’ of access to knowledge contained within these future datasets, which means every lowly customs official or border-force officer will know everything about you. It is kind of difficult to have an interesting or enjoyable life, when you consider that every incident and mistake made when you were in your teens or twenties will be available for just about everyone with any kind of official access to data, right up until the time you die. Really makes a mockery of the concept of personal privacy. [...] Press release UE: <http://statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/eu-trilogue-bb-policing-borders-migratio...>