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Dutch Senate votes in favour of dragnet surveillance powers
On 11 July 2017, the Dutch Senate passed the bill for the new Intelligence and Security Services Act. With the Senate vote, a years-long political battle has come to an end: the secret services have been given dragnet surveillance powers.
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#ValuesGap: Commercial interests win where all others fail
A European Parliament Committee decided that filtering all uploads to the internet as a method to prevent terrorism and “the most harmful content” is unacceptable. However, the same Committee decided that the same policy is acceptable for restricting use, including legal use, of copyrighted material.
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PNR: EU Court rules that draft EU/Canada air passenger data deal is unacceptable
Today, on 26 July 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed that the EU/Canada deal on collection of air travellers’ data and sharing it breaches European law. This is the third time that the European Court has ruled against arrangements for mandatory storage of personal data. This is good news for […]
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Copyright Directive discussed in Romania
On 23 June 2017, EDRi member Asociația pentru Tehnologie și Internet (ApTI) along with The National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries of Romania (ANBPR) and the Center for Independent Journalism (CJI) organised a meeting on the topic of the proposed EU Copyright Directive. Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Victor Negrescu took part in […]
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Net Neutrality: BEREC misses opportunity to lead the way
In November 2015, the European Union adopted the Net Neutrality Regulation (2015/2120), which contained a number of compromises that needed clarification. The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) was given the task of developing implementation guidelines to ensure a consistent application of the Regulation throughout Europe and, in practice, settle the remaining ambiguities […]
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Dissent in the privacy movement: whistleblowing, art and protest
This is the first 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 to […]
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Commission Report on child protection online lacks facts and evidence
In December 2016, the European Commission issued two reports on the implementation of the Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (Child Exploitation Directive, 2011/92/EU): a general report and a specific report about Article 25 of the Directive, which covers removal and blocking of child abuse, child exploitation and child […]
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Total information awareness for law enforcement, no data protection
The European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Services (ENLETS), an informal group funded by the European Commission, has produced a report on best practices in mobile solutions for law enforcement practitioners.
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Latest copyright votes: Filtering, blocking & half-baked compromises
On 11 July, two Committees in the European Parliament voted on their Opinions on European Commission’s proposal for a Copyright Directive: the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). CULT decided to abandon all reason and propose measures that contradict existing law on monitoring of online content. […]
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No, you can’t enjoy the music you paid for, says EU Parliament Committee
A leaked European Parliament document exposes some of the most bizarre suggestions yet in the debates around the proposed new copyright rules in Europe. The proposal for the Copyright Directive is currently being debated in various European Parliament Committees. The leaked document shows that conservative, socialist and Green Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in […]
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Germany: Will 30 June be the day populism killed free speech?
On 30 June 2017, the German Parliament will vote on the bill on “Enforcement on Social Networks”, also known as the “NetzDG”. This draft law, if adopted, could seriously impair human rights online, including freedom of expression and opinion. That is why we tirelessly explored different ways to make sure the European Union (EU) would […]
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Proposed Copyright Directive – Commissioner confirms it is illegal
At a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on 19 June, European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip made a statement that was both shocking and shockingly honest. He advertised the content filtering product of the US company Audible Magic as an affordable alternative to Google’s Content ID filtering technology for filtering European […]
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