European Digital Rights was founded in June 2002. Currently 35 privacy and civil rights organisations have EDRi membership. They are based or have offices in 21 different countries in Europe.
Members of European Digital Rights have joined forces to defend civil rights in the information society. The need for cooperation among organisations active in Europe is increasing as more regulation regarding the internet, copyright and privacy is originating from European institutions, or from international institutions with strong impact in Europe.
News & announcements
2013: EU consultations of importance to digital rights
18 January, 2013
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The European Commission frequently organises consultations, which are open not only to industry but also civil society and individual citizens. These are valuable opportunities to shape policy in a positive way from the outset rather than needing to take to the streets when the wrong policy is developed based on bad analysis.
The following is a list of consultations that are of particular importance to digital rights in 2013:
- IPRED consultation on the efficiency of proceedings and accessibility of measures
Deadline 30 March
See EDRi's answering guide
US lobbying against the data protection reform intensifies
17 January, 2013
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The United States authorities have produced another lobbying document to influence the European Union's decision making on European citizens' fundamental right to privacy and data protection.
Strangely, the document itself is not on headed paper and contains no authorship information. All of the lobbying documents produced so far have been in support of the positions taken by large US corporations and the adoption of US-style weak privacy protections in Europe.
Privacy Camp: civil society warm-up for the CPDP
16 January, 2013
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The Privacy Camp is an event in Brussels on privacy and data protection challenges and possibilities in Europe, launched by European Digital Rights (EDRi), the Law, Science, Technology and Society research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB-LSTS) and the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis (FUSL).
This event is a free-to-attend pre-conference of the
Computers, Privacy & Data Protection, on 23, 24, 25 January 2013.
Facultes universitaires Saint-Louis (FUSL)
Rue du Marais 119
1000 Brussels
When?
22 January 2013. The event starts at 11:00 and finishes at 18:00.
Irish EU Council Presidency proposes destruction of citizens' right to privacy
14 January, 2013
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The Irish Presidency of the European Council has distributed a "discussion paper" on the protection of citizens' personal data ahead of this week's Justice and Home Affairs Council in Dublin. As the first Presidency in this “European Year of the Citizen”, we had every reason to expect the Irish to produce novel ways of protecting citizens. Their first suggestions are definitely novel, but certainly are not protective of citizens' fundamental rights.
Commission's own internal review condemned CleanIT's incoherence and cost
9 January, 2013
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The CleanIT project has received a huge amount of criticism from outside of the EU institutions. But imagine if the Commission had been alerted to the incoherence of the planned project. Imagine if, before investing 325.796 Euro in CleanIT, the European Commission had been warned that the project lacked methodology and did not represent value for money. Imagine if the Commission's independent checks of the initial proposal gave the project a “value for money” rating that was substantially less than half the minimum average score necessary.
Remarkably, this is exactly what happened.
European Parliament Data protection draft – compromise or compromised?
8 January, 2013
The draft Report of the European Parliament on the European Commission's proposed Data Protection Regulation was published today. The Parliamentarian responsible, German Green MEP Jan Albrecht, has sought to improve on the Commission's initial proposal and also to address many of the concerns raised by his colleagues in the discussions that have taken place so far in various Committees. The draft text is therefore a mix of straightforward attempts at positive improvements and attempts at compromise based on the opinions so far expressed by his colleagues.
