Blogs
Filter by...
-
EDRi-gram, 18 March 2026
What has the EDRi network been up to over the past few weeks? Find out the latest digital rights news in our bi-weekly newsletter. In this edition: To scan or not to scan, EU lawmakers ask
Read more
-
Five lessons from three years of risk assessments under the Digital Services Act
Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), Big Tech platforms are required to annually assess systemic risks tied to their services and implement measures to mitigate them. EDRi member, the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) analysed the first three rounds of these risk assessments, spanning from 2023 to 2025, and identified five major gaps. In their current form, these assessments are unlikely to provide meaningful transparency or accountability for decisions affecting millions of internet users, raising fundamental questions about their usefulness and future direction.
Read more
-
Artificial Insecurity: how AI tools compromise confidentiality
Whatever you think about the promises or perils of AI, it’s becoming increasingly impossible to ignore that these tools are beset by glaring security vulnerabilities. From exposing user data to facilitating hacks, from undermining information integrity to creating supply chain vulnerabilities, AI tools are underpinned, and undermined, by dodgy security practices. As we’ll explore in this series, this has grave consequences for the confidentiality of our data, for information integrity, and for access to and availability of systems — all problems that a human rights-respecting approach can help solve.
Read more
-
DSA vs. Reality: Are children safer online?
How can social media be safer for people of all ages? During the hearing held in the European Parliament on 24th February, civil society experts led by Panoptykon debated possible solutions with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and officials from the European Commission. Yet YouTube, TikTok, and Meta dodged having to answer difficult questions.
Read more
-
Court again rules in favour of Bits of Freedom: freedom of choice for Instagram and Facebook users remains intact
On 11 March, the Dutch Court of Appeal ruled on Meta's appeal against an earlier verdict brought by Bits of Freedom. The judgment was in favour of the digital human rights organisation. This is good news for Facebook and Instagram users in the Netherlands: they will continue to have the freedom to chose over what information appears on their feed.
Read more
-
The Digital Omnibus: A step back from the brink, but the risks remain
A first Council compromise on the Digital Omnibus removes several of the most dangerous changes that were originally proposed to the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. This is a welcome development, however, important risks remain. Some amendments could still weaken safeguards in practice, while new provisions on AI development and access to terminal equipment remain unresolved. Simplification should strengthen rights, not dilute them. The safest way to protect Europe’s digital rulebook is to reject the Digital Omnibus entirely.
Read more
-
EDRi files DSA complaint against YouTube for undermining user autonomy
EDRi has filed a complaint with the Belgian Digital Services Coordinator against YouTube under the Digital Service Act (DSA), challenging the legality of the recommender system options offered by the platform. EDRi requests a thorough investigation and effective enforcement measures.
Read more
-
EDRi-gram, 4 March 2026
What has the EDRi network been up to over the past few weeks? Find out the latest digital rights news in our bi-weekly newsletter. In this edition: Chat Control in final stretch, breaking extractive business models with Digital Fairness Act, & more!
Read more
-
Outsourcing crime control: How EU anti-money laundering rules threaten financial privacy
Privacy First is drawing attention to the risks to financial privacy and fundament rights arising from the European Union’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework. Over the past decade, the EU has increasingly shifted the responsibility of detecting financial crime from public authorities to banks, bookkeepers and other companies (called“obliged entities”). With a completely revised AML Package set to enter into force in mid-2027, this system will expand further, turning ordinary citizens and civil society organisations into subjects of systems of financial surveillance.
Read more
-
Chat Control is in the final stretch – but it could be a marathon, not a sprint
With final negotiations on the controversial CSA Regulation underway, you’d be forgiven for thinking that our digital rights are out of the woods. However, even though the recently-agreed position of EU Member States is a cautiously optimistic step, we are still far from a final deal. Perhaps the most worrying issue that remains is the threat of age verification becoming mandatory across all digital methods of private communication – a hugely disproportionate limitation on our privacy and free speech.
Read more
-
Breaking the extractive digital business model: a rights-based Digital Fairness Act
EDRi’s new position paper addresses the growing threat of manipulative and unfair platform design in the EU’s digital environment. It examines how deceptive interfaces, exploitative personalisation, and addictive design practices are embedded in today’s digital economy and why existing laws fail to tackle their structural roots. Grounded in a rights-based analysis, the paper argues that the Digital Fairness Act must deliver systemic change by embedding fairness by design and by default into the digital infrastructure that shapes our lives.
Read more
-
EDRi-gram, 18 February 2026
What has the EDRi network been up to over the past few weeks? Find out the latest digital rights news in our bi-weekly newsletter. In this edition: A competitiveness feast with our rights on the menu 🍽️
Read more