The Never-Ending Story of PNR Profiling and Surveillance of Movement in the EU

Using Passenger Name Record (PNR) in law enforcement has a tumultuous history. Acquired initially by the commercial aviation sector, PNR is repurposed to be fed into automated systems that aim to detect behaviours associated with criminal activities and target air travellers, identifying them as ‘risky’ individuals. This automated process raises several questions, such as how those systems create the subjects they will govern (i.e., ‘risky’ travellers), the accountability and the implications of the automated process on fundamental rights. This article focuses on the decades-long controversy surrounding the emergence of PNR data processing in the law enforcement context that has culminated in the EU PNR Directive. It considers the political and legal background of the Directive and analyses the changing legal landscape based on the legal challenges against it, the first of which is Ligue des droits humains, delivered in June 2022.