By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

The European Union’s privacy watchdog has given warning that new access for Europol to personal data could lead to individuals being labelled as terror suspects based on hearsay or records of their shopping habits.

The warning, from the head of the European Data Protection supervisor, comes amid moves to allow the EU police agency to process so-called “soft data” in search of relevant information for its criminal investigations.

Peter Hustinx said that moves to give Europol the power to gather intelligence on “people who have not (yet) committed a crime” are without privacy safeguards.
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He told The Daily Telegraph: “The proposal does not specify what data could be used in criminal investigations. It could be everything. It could be a vital detail such as an insurance company about a stolen car. But it could also be soft data, behavioural data.”

The information could include statements of hearsay given to a local police force or data on personal shopping habits from a supermarket loyalty card, he said.

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