The delegate of the Government of Spain will be able to spy without judicial authorization

From today, June 16, a new regulation comes into force in Spain that allows the delegate of the Government of Spain monitor whoever you think is appropriate. This measure, according to different personalities, represents a step backwards in terms of privacy and confidentiality rights of citizens.

In the provision included in Organic Law 7/2021 of May 26, this new measure is established. This standard deals with the protection of personal data for the purposes of detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses and the execution of criminal sanctions.

This rule was approved in Congress last April; and published in the BOE last Thursday, May 27.

Some people have expressed concern about this law, especially in certain aspects. One of them is the article 5.d, in which the profiling through the use of personal data. Its purpose is to be able to evaluate certain personal aspects of a natural person; and thus be able to analyze or predict issues related to your professional performance, health status, personal preferences, economic situation, interests, reliability, location…

In this way, there are those who question it, and assure that it is more useful to follow certain facts in particular; It is assumed that citizens can be spied on because their profile matches certain parameters; and in this way they consider that he is a «potential criminal.»

Other items to consider

There are other articles that must be paid attention to due to their importance, among which are the following:

Article 9

In seven references are made distinction between categories of interested parties. It indicates that the data controller, whenever possible, must establish distinctions between the personal data of the different categories of interested parties, such as those who may have committed a criminal offense.

Article 5.K

Section K of article 5 establishes generic data. These offer unique information about that person’s physiology or health; and are obtained based on the analysis of a biological sample of the natural person in question.

These personal data could be held by the competent authority for as long as necessary to be able to fulfill the purposes provided for in Article 1. These are those of «prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses or the execution of criminal sanctions, including protection and prevention against threats to public security.»

Article 8

Article 8 of this regulation refers to the data holding, which must be reviewed every 3 years, a responsibility that falls on the authorities, in charge of its evaluation. However, they may also store the information without a particular period.

In fact, the text establishes a term of 20 years with the exception that «factors such as the existence of open investigations or crimes that have not prescribed, the non-completion of the execution of the sentence, recidivism and the need for protection of the victims occur.»

In this way, this means that, The authority could store the data without a specific maximum period.

Although there are those who criticize all the regulations implemented, considering that they violate the privacy and confidentiality of citizens, there are those who explain that it is a transposition of a 2016 European Union directive; and that Spain had not yet adopted.

In this way, Spain was obliged to regulate by law the processing of personal data that the police have handled on criminals, suspects and other people since 2018. In this sense, there will be greater control over cryptocurrencies.