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ALTwitter – profiling with metadata
When we are sharing links, events or ideas through social media, we leave behind a trace of metadata: when and how often, which days of the week, in which language, using which hashtag, linking to which users or websites, and so on. Those details might not say much when we look at each piece of […]
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Big Data for Big Impact – but not only a positive one
Technology has changed and keeps dramatically changing our everyday life by transforming the human species to advanced networked societies. To celebrate this digital revolution, 17 May is dedicated to the “World Telecommunication and Information Society Day” (WTISD-17). The theme for this year’s celebration is “Big Data for Big Impact”. Not so surprisingly, the buzzword “big […]
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AVMSD: European Parliament set to vote whether it’s allowed to vote
On 18 May 2017, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote on whether they want to work on the Audiovisual Media Services Directive reform now, or let a handful of MEPs represent over 500 million EU citizens in the so-called “trilogue” negotiations between the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the EU, representing the […]
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ENDitorial: Commissioners’ oath – a broken promise on fundamental rights
On 3 May, 2010, the entire European Commission travelled to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Strasbourg to, for the first time in the history of the Union, take an oath that included a solemn declaration to “respect the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in […]
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UK Digital Economy Act: Millions of websites could be blocked
The Digital Economy Act has become law in the United Kingdom. This wide-ranging law has several areas of concern for digital rights, and could seriously affect privacy and freedom of expression of internet users. One of the main concerns is that it will compel legal pornographic websites to verify the age of their users. The British […]
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Dutch ban on zero-rating struck down – major blow to net neutrality
20 April 2017 was a bad day for net neutrality in the Netherlands, and possibly also in the rest of Europe. The court of Rotterdam struck down the general ban on price discrimination, including zero-rating, as enacted in the Dutch Telecommunications Act. The court held that the categorical ban on price discrimination is “evidently” in […]
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BBA Germany 2017: Espionage, threats, tracking, provoking cyber wars
The annual German Big Brother Awards were bestowed by EDRi member Digitalcourage on 5 May 2017 in Bielefeld, Germany. The event drew much media attention, as one of the awardees threatened the organiser with legal action. The awardees are informed of their awards a few days in advance and invited to respond or appear at the […]
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Killing parody, killing memes, killing the internet?
We love the internet because it creates fantastic opportunities to express ourselves and to innovate. But do we love it enough to pass it on to future generations? Nearly 20 years ago, politicians made decisions that gave us the internet we have today. Visionary policy-makers decided not to punish internet companies for the actions of […]
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Hakuna Metadata – Let’s have some fun with Sid’s browsing history!
But I am not interesting enough for someone to bother to look into my browsing history. The most common argument for people not to be more wary of the threats to their online privacy is that, simply, no one cares. Or at least not enough. But still, don’t we all like to delete our browsing […]
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Member in the Spotlight: epicenter.works
epicenter.works is a non-profit organisation from Austria committed to the preservation of fundamental rights in the digital age and a pluralistic society.
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EU data protection watchdogs support stronger ePrivacy legislation
On 10 January 2017, the European Commission (EC) published its long-awaited proposal for an e-Privacy Regulation (ePR) to replace the 2002 e-Privacy Directive (ePD). In April 2017, two Opinions were issued to provide comments and recommendations on how to better safeguard the right to privacy, confidentiality of communications, and the protection of personal data in the […]
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Encryption – debunking the myths
How to send a sensitive message protecting it from spying eyes? Encrypt it. You think your message is not sensitive or that no one is spying on you? Encrypt it anyway. When you send your message encrypted, no-one else but the intended recipient can read it. Even if someone manages to catch the message when […]
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