Personal Data Protection and National Security: European Approach

Abstract

This master’s thesis seeks to determine the substance of a European approach to personal data protection and national security. To do so, it investigates the sources of personal data law able to influence at a European scale: the Council of Europe and the European Union. As national security remains within the States' competencies, the first part consists of the study of the limitations that European States have to confront when acting for national security, and more precisely, the limitations made to defend personal data protection. In doing so, this research analyses and compares the case laws of the ECtHR and of the CJEU. Hence, if the first part of this master’s thesis analyses the conflictual exchanges between national security and personal data protection, the second part analyses how the two concepts can be defended together. To do so, the second part focuses on the defence from foreign influence within democratic elections. Indeed, the link with the subject is that foreign influence on EU democratic processes can be realised by processing data of EU citizens, to influence them for the benefit of foreign entities. This processing of data tends notably to vastly disinform and target influenceable voters. The European Parliament called to act, qualifying it as a threat to “national security” in a resolution from June 1, 2023.