Blogs
Filter by...
-
German intelligence agency violates freedom of the press
EDRi observer Reporters Without Borders Germany is appalled by the apparently targeted surveillance of foreign journalists by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. As reported by the Spiegel, the BND spied on at least 50 telephone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses belonging to journalists or newsrooms around the world in the years following 1999. […]
Read more
-
People with disabilities do not want just any Accessibility Act
On 6 March 2017, the European Disability Forum (EDF), the umbrella organisation representing persons with disabilities at EU level, joined forces with its members and other civil society organisations to protest in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. Over a hundred people gathered together calling for a meaningful European Accessibility Act (EAA), to guarantee better […]
Read more
-
Audiovisual Media Services Directive – is it good enough to be a law?
The worst examples of bigotry, ignorance, and hatred have appeared more visible in our public discourse in recent months and years. All reasonable people are appalled at willful ignorance and almost visceral hate. We need to take the necessary steps to fight ignorance and hatred. But we need to do so in a way that […]
Read more
-
Denmark: Our data retention law is illegal, but we keep it for now
On 2 March 2017, the Danish Minister of Justice appeared before the Legal Affairs Committee of the Danish Parliament to answer questions about the implications of the Tele2 data retention ruling (joined cases C-203/15 and C-698/15) from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In his statement to the committee, the Minister started […]
Read more
-
The tale of the fight for transparency in the EU Internet Forum
Chapter One: The dark knights at a secret meeting It was the beginning of the year 2014 when the European Commission first announced the creation of an “EU Internet Forum”. But it would take almost two years and several meetings before its official launch on 3 December 2015. The Forum’s mission: to “counter terrorist content […]
Read more
-
Are net neutrality and privacy Europe’s brilliant way of trumping destructionism?
For the online economy to work, trust and competition are needed. Trust to drive take-up of services and competition to drive down prices and drive up innovation. Privacy The 2016 Eurobarometer (pdf) survey found that nearly 60% of individuals in the EU had avoided certain websites for privacy reasons, while 82% were in favour of […]
Read more
-
Rights groups demand action on export controls
Nine civil society organisations, including EDRi and several EDRi members, have signed a letter to the participants of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime with 41 participating states. We joined Privacy International’s efforts, in expressing concerns that “elements of the current control list of technologies and proposed new additions will have adverse effects […]
Read more
-
Civil society letter: Without reforms in US surveillance laws, the Privacy Shield must be suspended
A coalition of 17 global civil society organisations, including many EDRi members, wrote a letter to the European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers, Věra Jourová, to express the need for a reform of US surveillance laws. The coalition of civil rights group claim that Europe must suspend the data-transfer arrangement (the EU-US Privacy Shield) unless the […]
Read more
-
We’re looking for a policy intern!
Read more
-
Privacy Camp 2017 in video
On 24 January, the fifth annual Privacy Camp, co-organised by EDRi, Privacy Salon, Université Saint-Louis (USL-B) and the interdisciplinary Research Group on Law Science Technology & Society of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB-LSTS) took place in Brussels. Did you miss our #PrivacyCamp17: Controlling data, controlling machines? Now you can watch all the sessions or relive some […]
Read more
-
A positive step forward against the “censorship machine” in the Copyright Directive
On 24 February 2017 the Rapporteur of the European Parliament (EP) Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), Catherine Stihler MEP, published her draft Opinion on the Copyright Directive. The Opinion sends a strong message against the most extremist parts of the European Commission’s proposal: the “censorship machine” (aka upload filter) proposal in Article […]
Read more
-
Consultation on multilateral investment court misses the point
The European Commission has launched a consultation on establishing a multilateral investment court, which would serve as a permanent body to decide investment disputes. The court would replace controversial investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in existing and future trade and investment treaties. It would interpret the substantive rules in these treaties, which provide a high […]
Read more