Recital (34)

The processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, including the safeguarding against and the prevention of threats to public security, should cover any operation or set of operations which are performed upon personal data or sets of personal data for those purposes, whether by automated means or otherwise, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, alignment or combination, restriction of processing, erasure or destruction. In particular, the rules of this Directive should apply to the transmission of personal data for the purposes of this Directive to a recipient not subject to this Directive. Such a recipient should encompass a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or any other body to which personal data are lawfully disclosed by the competent authority. Where personal data were initially collected by a competent authority for one of the purposes of this Directive, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 should apply to the processing of those data for purposes other than the purposes of this Directive where such processing is authorised by Union or Member State law. In particular, the rules of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 should apply to the transmission of personal data for purposes outside the scope of this Directive. For the processing of personal data by a recipient that is not a competent authority or that is not acting as such within the meaning of this Directive and to which personal data are lawfully disclosed by a competent authority, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 should apply. While implementing this Directive, Member States should also be able to further specify the application of the rules of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, subject to the conditions set out therein.