The ETIAS Regulation requires all visa-exempt travellers from 59 countries to obtain authorisation through an online application before departure. In the online application, individuals will be required to provide a range of information, including biographical data, addresses, telephone number, travel arrangements, level of education, current occupation, past travels to war or conflict zones and whether the person has recently been subject to a decision requiring them to leave the territory of any country.
After the applicant has completed the application, the system works through a "Central Unit" (hosted at Frontex) that assesses travel authorisation and visa applications against a watchlist of “persons of interest” and “specific risk indicators.” This automated profiling takes place via algorithms trained to detect suspicious patterns based on a variety of statistics coming from EU databases (EES and the ETIAS itself), information provided by Member States and information on epidemic diseases provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organisation. The “specific risk indicators” are based on data such as age range, sex, nationality, country and city of residence, current occupation and level of education. If the travel authorisation is granted, this information is stored in the system for three years; otherwise, for five years. Moreover, these data are easily accessible by a wide range of law enforcement authorities and by Europol, posing risks regarding the privacy rights and the broad purposes for which they could be used.
The ETIAS Regulation explicitly states that one of the system goals is to prevent illegal migration through risk profiling, placing international travelers under an increasing veil of suspicion. In this way, ETIAS materializes EU Member States’ necessity of exercising risk prevention and preemptive mobility governance, as its scope is precisely to intercept threats even before they reach the border, through screening and risk profiling activities. The EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency commented on the system, warning that “there is limited research available on the feasibility of using risk indicators without engaging in discriminatory profiling.” The NGO Statewatch warned that there is a limited possibility to access effective remedy for those affected by the system.
ETIAS Regulation