Developments in technology have created the possibility for law enforcement authorities to use for surveillance purposes devices that are in the hands or private premises of individuals (e.g. smart phones, GPS devices, smart meters, etc.). The extent to which these devices interfere with an individual's private sphere might differ. In the European Union, surveillance measures are considered lawful if they have been issued in conformity with the legal rules and the proportionality principle. Taking a fundamental rights approach, this paper focuses on the information needed for adopting proportionate decisions when authorizing the use for surveillance of devices that are not built for surveillance purposes. Since existing methods of privacy assessment of technologies do not offer the required information, this paper suggests the need for a new method of assessing privacy implications of technologies and devices which combines an assessment of privacy aspects with the different dimensions of surveillance.

A Pokémon Go-like smartphone app called 'Automon' was unveiled in October 2017 as one of several new initiatives to increase the public's contribution and engagement in police investigations in the Netherlands. Automon is designed in the form of a game that instigates participants to photograph license plates to find out if a vehicle is stolen. The participants in the game score points for each license plate photographed, and may also qualify for a financial reward if a vehicle is actually stolen. In addition, when someone reports that a vehicle has been recently stolen, game participants that are in the vicinity receive a push notification and are tasked with searching for that particular vehicle and license plate. This paper studies the example of the Automon app and contributes to the existing debate on crowdsourced surveillance and the involvement of individuals in law enforcement activities from an EU law perspective. It analyses the lawfulness of initiatives that proactively require individuals to be involved in law enforcement activities and confronts them for the first time with European Union (EU) data protection standards. It is concluded that the Automon app design does not meet the new legal standards.

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Retention of data in the new Anti-money Laundering Directive-'need to know' versus 'nice to know'. International Data Privacy Law, 7(2), 115-125.