EES system for non EU Balkan countries entering Schengen zone, started today

Posted by Aggressive_Limit2448@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 23 comments

Balkan citizens of Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia will need screening process of verification of fingerprints and camera verification while entering all EU point of entries including airports and road borders.

Entering Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Greece in Balkans will mean biometric information to be collected. The system should be completely implemented in whole EU until April 2026.

ETIAS system start in October 2026 and citizens ofnthese countries will need payed online approval before traveling valid for 3 years per passport identification.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

At first I was surprised at this law, this is a huge violation of privacy, but then I remembered this applies only to the EU, where the majority of its members are literal dictatorships.

[-]

Ok_Stretch_405@reddit

Once you leave your house, there is no privacy my friend.

[-]

toshu@reddit

Ah yes, Mr. Hoxha, Albania is the only free country in the world, better build some more bunkers to protect yourselves from the EU.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

Mr. Hoxha has been dead since 1985.

Albania is not the only free country in the world.

Bunkers are rather ineffective against the EU, since the EU isn't a military threat in anyway, to anyone.

According to your shallow logic, we shouldn't call out Nazi Germany as a dictatorship and a brutal regime that brought death and suffering to millions, because we have not done the same thing, therefore we should shut up. What an ignorant response.

You should be worried about these type of personal data falling freely in the hand of the government and/or police, and don't be a fool to think that this will stop with non EU people. It will come for EU citizens as well, and that's why you should be worried, however you're too dense to see and realize what is happening in front of you.

[-]

Mysterious-Put1459@reddit

I guess for you it's easier to spot personal privacy violations than sarcasm

[-]

West_Possible_7969@reddit

We get fingerprinted since the 80s for IDs, and biometric passports are a mandatory thing, in my country and yours, or else no country would let you in.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

You're misunderstanding the concept and the problem at core.

And while I can't speak for your country, in Albania, the government doesn't have by default your biometric data. That data is recorded from you, written in the biometric ID by a independent company and it's discarded afterwards.

I'm not against verifying who enters your country, they should verify it, it's only logical, and they should have the tools to do so even with biometrics data (which they already do), what they shouldn't do, is store this data for future use, that's the violation of privacy part. No government, should have access to biometrics at will.

[-]

West_Possible_7969@reddit

Are you saying that Albania does not store the biometric info anywhere, even for authentication purposes? Is that written somewhere?

TIMS does store foreigners data for some time by the way.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

Tims stores who entered or left the country. It does not store the fingerprints or face of that person.

[-]

West_Possible_7969@reddit

Pff, not everything is a violation of privacy, you are not entitled to privacy without limitations, for example when you want to enter another country. No one is forcing you to.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

Maybe I'm not, but I should be. Privacy is a right that should be the default and I have to waive my right to privacy in certain cases, but only by my choice.

The EU itself says so, via the GDPR. Companies storing emails needs consent that you can withdraw at any time, but governments storing biometric data don't? What kind of asinine logic is this?

[-]

West_Possible_7969@reddit

GDPR does not do what you think it does and certainly does not override other laws & regulations. For example, you cannot demand from my shop to erase your payment history because law mandates I keep business records for 10 years, and tax records for 5. I can erase personal data like your phone, but not your VAT ID or country of sale, because it is a tax record.

Accordingly, I cannot demand from my gov to erase me from military registry or my university from their alumni one, because there is pre existing legal basis for them to do so, under specific rules.

The same is true for non EEA citizens, we have to have a way for authenticating their biometric passport, and that way is by comparing the biometric data. There is specific legal basis for that, a specific time frame and specific rules, all of which are in accordance to GDPR because GDPR protections apply to anyone in EEA territory, tourists included.

Even we have to register when we move to another EU country, there is no privacy of residence for example, I cannot delete my private data from the tax authority or social services.

Your gov (and mine) has all your history from birth, your certificates and school registries, your assets (house, cars), your marriage licence, your professional license (if your profession requires it), who your children are, how much you earn etc etc. Foreign govs dont have that, and dont want it, but they do want to know who you are and how to find and deport you if you overstay.

The shocking thing is that EU was the last place not to do so, in US, Canada, Asia etc they asked me for more info than what my country does to issue me an ID, especially US, ESTA is a crazy process.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

Payment history is not PID (Personal identifiable data), GDPR allows for the collection of such data when it's absolutely necessary. What is the necessity of you storing my name and last name because you sold me a phone 3 years ago? There isn't one. You can retain the payment history as long as you want, you can't store my name for such time.

As an individual, I don't have a VAT, so I don't know what you're trying to say here.

GDPR doesn't mean complete anonimitety, it means companies shouldn't store more data than absolutely needed and for only as needed. DHL can collect and store my name and where I live because they need it to perform their duty of delivering stuff. After that's done and whatever retention period may apply to them, they should discard such data by either deleting it or mask it.

That is wrong. You already have a way to verify the biometric data, which is by reading my fingerprint and compare it to what's stored in the passport. There is absolutely no need to centrally store then somewhere.

You can't delete your data from tax authorities, because it's still needed for them to conduct their business. What is the point of the German government, storing my fingerprints, when I entered the country legally and left the country legally. There isn't any legal justification for it besides "I can, therefore I shall".

Just because other governments are doing it, doesn't make it less concerning.

You have a fundamental issue with how privacy works, you're assuming privacy means you're a ghost in this world, in reality it's just about controlling who has information about you and what it is used for and storing the biometric data of millions of people is a huge privacy concern since this isn't needed to conduct any legitimate business and it's going to be used for malicious purposes by EU governments.

[-]

West_Possible_7969@reddit

Yes I can keep your PID for at least the period of mandated warranty of each provided product or service for example.

Individuals do have VAT IDs (TINs) in all countries that do not have Personal Numbers.

You assume a malicious intent, as you assume that Legal Basis have to be a personal justification to you. It does not, it has to comply to EU existing laws. If you disagree on some fundamental level or based on any assumption then do not ever enter.

Spreading tinfoil hat rants and false statements about dictatorships (which cheapens the experiences of people that actually lived under one tremendously) makes you look like all the other sciolists shouting at the clouds.

[-]

tejanaqkilica@reddit

Then it qualifies as data needed in order to deliver a service or product. Again, that is legal and makes sense. Once that falls out of scope, such data must be discarded.

I have never purchased a product where I have to provide my Tax ID, not even once.

I assume malicious intent because it has happened in the past. And precedence is king in my opinion.

During Covid, German police illegally obtained PID collected from the "Luca App" which they used in a case they were investigating.

More recently, the EU has been desperately trying to pass a new piece of legislation, which allows them to legally perform mass surveillance of its citizens, political opponents, press, whistleblowers and so on. If that doesn't scream dictatorship to you, I don't know what will.

[-]

West_Possible_7969@reddit

Our govs already know where we are and issue our passports so really I do not know what are you trying to make of this or who you have to warn. Foreigners? I have been fingerprinted in US & 5 other Asian countries in order to enter. Is it because it happened next to you or you trust only utopias where nothing illegal ever happens, if that is the case you will end up stateless.

The solution is simple really, and no territory has to explain themselves to non citizens, all countries don’t anyway.

*you would not use your Tax ID as a non EEA citizen anywhere in this context, it was an example of widely used PID.

EU does not desperately trying to pass anything, if that was the case it would have passed this and the 4 times in previous attempts. Countries proposing things and deliberating on them is the system working as intended. Failing to pass it 5 times is also the system working as intended. Requiring majorities & many many steps for anything to pass, the same. If we banned that process, that would be a dictatorship. Not having constitutions and EU charters not permitting that (Germany & Denmark ironically) would also be a dictatorship.

[-]

Aggressive_Limit2448@reddit (OP)

No stamps for them anymore but no more overstays after 90 days, however when ETIAS is implemented they will have to pay for 3 years period.

[-]

deathgang12@reddit

Only once

[-]

SolivagantWalker@reddit

Ought to happen