The CNPD recommended that the national legislator review the national law that regulates the transfer, by air carriers, of passenger record data for the purposes of preventing and investigating terrorist offenses and other serious crimes.
Following the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the interpretation of Directive (EU) 2016/681 that that law transposes («PNR Directive»), the CNPD sent its Opinion 114 to the Assembly of the Republic and the Government /2022 , of December 21st, in which it indicates the rules that need to be changed in Law no. 21/2019 , of January 30th, so that national law is in compliance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and with the Constitution.
First of all, the law cannot apply generally to flights within the European Union nor, in this context, to serious crime other than just that relating to the prevention and repression of terrorist offenses. Air passenger data also cannot have a general retention period of five years if an objective link is not established between the risk of serious criminal offense and air passenger transport.
The CNPD also provides an opinion on the exhaustive specification of databases subject to comparison, on the reuse of PNR data for other purposes, on prior authorization for the disclosure of pseudonymized data, on the list of personal data subject to processing and, for last on the integration of the Passenger Information Office into the Single Point of Contact for International Cooperation (PUC-CPI).
It should be remembered that the CJEU considered that the PNR Directive, transposed into national law, entails truly serious interference with the fundamental rights to the protection of personal data and respect for private and family life, insofar as it aims to establish a surveillance regime continuous, non-directed and systematic, which includes the automated evaluation of personal data of all people using air transport services (see paragraph 111 of the judgment).
https://www.cnpd.pt/comunicacao-publica/noticias/lei-nacional-do-pnr-tem-de-ser-revista/