Europe is becoming a large database operator. That is not without risks, as is shown by a recent scandal made public by a member of the European Parliament. The Polish authorities have given access to a European database to a private company. That private company now is selling confidential information from the European criminal records database ECRIS to the public.

Employers can easily get your criminal record certificates all over Europe via a company & the Polish authorities, which give access to the EU criminal record database ECRIS.

👉 @EU_Commission must investigate this commercial practice immediately! Read my questions ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/zQ9lBQQtls

— Sophie in ’t Veld (@SophieintVeld) 26 september 2019

This affair shows the dangers of the large databases created by Europe and by private parties, for instance for combating money-laundering. These databases also contain confidential information on non-criminal people. Data breaches will pose great risks for European citizens.

Poland is not the first
Poland is not the first country that is violating EU law in regard of European databases. In May 2018 it became public the UK had unlawfully copied classified personal information from a database reserved for members of the passport-free Schengen travel zone.

Read more on this blog on the European databases in the posts with the tag eu-LISA.