The categories of personal data and categories of data subjects whose data may be processed for the purpose of cross-checking are specifically defined in the ER.
Only persons who are suspected of having committed or taken part in a criminal offence in respect of which Europol is competent, or who have been convicted of such an offence, may be processed for the purpose of cross-checking. Furthermore, cross-checking is possible for persons regarding whom there are factual indications or reasonable grounds to believe that they will commit criminal offences in respect of which Europol is competent (potential future criminals).
Data which may be processed in this context include name, date and place of birth, nationality, sex, place of residence, profession and whereabouts of the person concerned, social security numbers, driving licences, identification documents and passport data, and where necessary, other characteristics likely to assist in identification, including any specific objective physical characteristics not subject to change such as dactyloscopic data and DNA profile (established from the non-coding part of DNA). Furthermore, certain information relating to criminal offences can be stored.
Annex II, A. ER.
Data submitted to Europol for cross-checking are directly accessible at national level with a view to enabling comparison against other data sets.
Article 20(1) ER.
Personal data relating to minors are, however, only searchable on a hit/no-hit basis in order to grant additional protection considering their sensitivity from a data protection perspective.
