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Tear down the tracking wall
It has become a daily routine: “consenting to” being tracked, on the basis of meaningless explanations (or no explanation at all) before you’re allowed access to a website or online service. It’s about time to set limits to this tracking rat race.
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The privacy movement and dissent: Art
This is the third blogpost of a series, originally published by EDRi member Bits of Freedom, that explains how the activists of a Berlin-based privacy movement operate, organise, and express dissent. The series is inspired by a thesis by Loes Derks van de Ven, which describes the privacy movement as she encountered it from 2013 […]
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No justification for internet censorship during Catalan referendum
The ruthless efficiency with which the Spanish government censored the internet ahead of the referendum on Catalan independence foreshadowed the severity of its crackdown at polling places on 1 October. EDRi member Electronic Frontier Foundation previously wrote about one aspect of that censorship; the raid of the .cat top-level domain registry. But there was much […]
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Battle lines drawn between citizens and internet giants in EU e-Privacy Regulation
On 2 October, the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) and the Industry Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) voted on the e-Privacy Regulation, the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) voted on 28 September. These votes will feed into the final decision to be taken by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice […]
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Commission’s position on tackling illegal content online is contradictory and dangerous for free speech
Today, on 28 September, the European Commission published its long-awaited Communication “Tackling Illegal Content Online”. This follows a leaked copy we previously analysed. The document puts virtually all its focus on internet companies monitoring online communications, in order to remove content that they decide might be illegal. It presents few safeguards for free speech, and […]
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European Parliament Consumer Protection Committee chooses Google ahead of citizens – again
On 28 September, the European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) adopted its Opinion on the proposed e-Privacy Regulation. Just as it did when reviewing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is fighting hard to minimise the privacy and security of the European citizens it is meant to defend.
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Letter to the FCC: The world is for net neutrality
Today, 26 September 2017, European Digital Rights (EDRi) and over 200 other civil society organisations and businesses joined forces to send a letter to the head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with a clear message: the world is for net neutrality. In the letter, we express concerns about the negative impact the rollback […]
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Leaked document: Does the EU Commission really plan to tackle illegal content online?
On 14 September, Politico published a leaked draft of the European Commission’s Communication “Tackling Illegal Content Online”. The Communication contains “guidelines” to tackle illegal content, while remaining coy in key areas. It is expected to be officially published on 28 September.
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Did the EU Commission hide a study that did not suit their agenda?
In 2013, the European Commission announced a launch of a study on copyright – and never published its results. Julia Reda, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), tabled a freedom of information request on this issue and was eventually granted access to the study.
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Should video-sharing platforms be part of the AVMSD?
The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is currently being reformed. After going through several legislative stages, the AVMSD is now being negotiated in trilogues, that is, informal, secret negotiations between the European Parliament (representing citizens) and the Council (representing EU Member States), facilitated by the European Commission (representing EU interests). As part of the negotiations, […]
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Position Paper: Encryption workarounds and human rights
On 12 September, EDRi published the position paper “Encryption Workarounds: a digital rights perspective”. It was published in response to the European Commission’s expert consultation exercise around the Encryption Workarounds paper by Orin Kerr and Bruce Schneier.
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Dutch digital investigation: Pushing the boundaries of legality
The Dutch court is currently considering the case against Naoufal F, in which the police made use of several advanced digital investigation methods that challenge the boundaries of the law. A key issue in the case is the way in which the police gained access to and analysed the secure communication of suspects. Inez Weski, […]
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