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Facebook patent: Lending based on social connections
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has granted Facebook a patent which could allow “authenticating an individual for access to information or service based on that individual’s social network.” The main use for this technology is to allegedly prevent members of a network from sending spam to other members with whom they aren’t […]
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Our internships at EDRi: We made digital rights matter
During the last couple of months, as EDRi’s interns, through advocacy, campaigning and reporting, we were given a unique opportunity to challenge threats to fundamental rights posed in the context of net neutrality, privacy, personal data and copyright. It was a fruitful and rewarding experience that allowed us to put our theoretical skills into practice […]
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Launch of the EU Internet Forum – behind closed doors and without civil society
The European Commission has confirmed to EDRi that it is preparing to partner with US online companies in order to plan the arbitrary monitoring and censorship of European citizens and, contrary to previous assurances, will exclude civil society from these discussions. More disturbingly, this is happening at the same time as the US is preparing […]
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Leaked documents: German news site Netzpolitik.org investigated for treason
If it were up to the Federal Attorney General and the President of the German Domestic Security Agency, two reporters of Netzpolitik.org, a German digital rights blog, would soon be in prison for at least two years. Yesterday, the news blog was officially informed about investigations against the editors Markus Beckedahl and Andre Meister. The […]
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European Commission will “monitor” existing EU data retention laws
The European Commission (EC) told EDRi that it “will continue monitoring legislative developments at the national level” regarding the existence of data retention laws in EU Member States. The EC provided this non-committal response to the letter we sent on 2 July 2015, asking the Commission to investigate illegal data retention laws in the European […]
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French Constitutional Council approves sweeping surveillance powers
On 23 July, the French Constitutional Council approved sweeping surveillance powers for intelligence agencies. In its decision, the Council declared almost all provisions constitutional, in contradiction to vehement opposition from civil rights groups, human rights experts, academia and the online business sector. The “Loi Renseignement” (also dubbed the “French Patriot Act”) was passed by the […]
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A new wave of Internet blocking in Turkey
On 25 July, the Turkish government ordered the blocking of 65 popular dissident and Kurdish websites and temporarily slowed down Twitter and Facebook access. This follows the government’s air attack against the Islamic State (Isis) and Kurdish forces in Syria. A few days earlier, Twitter was blocked entirely for a few hours. On 20 July, […]
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ENDitorial: European Parliament – translating freedoms into Chinese
In the autumn 2015, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament (LIBE) will resume its discussions of a draft resolution on “radicalisation”, led by Rachida Dati, a French conservative member. Her draft includes several bizarre statements, but one on Internet “giants” stands out as being particularly extreme. The proposal […]
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David Wessel: “I get between three and five take down notices daily”
This is a translation in the 50th edition of a series hosted at rechtaufremix.org, entitled “Remixers”. The series is about people and their experiences and attitudes to remixing and the remix culture. The 50th edition went back to talk to the very first interviewee: David Wessel aka Mashup-Germany. David Wessel was born in Cologne, but […]
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EU Commission – finally – confirms that its promise on data protection will be respected
Last April, EDRi, supported by other sixty-five NGOs from the European Union, North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia sent a letter (PDF) to the European Commission. The letter asked if the Commission would respect the “absolute red line” that the protection levels in the 1995 Data Protection Directive would be maintained. This […]
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Press release: EDRi asks for more clarity on net neutrality
This morning, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament (ITRE) formally accepted the text of the informal trialogue negotiations on the “Telecommunications Single Market” Regulation, which covers net neutrality and roaming. The text represents a significant improvement on the incoherent, contradictory and destructive approach promoted by the EU Council and European […]
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Press release: European Parliament pushes for more surveillance and profiling of EU citizens
Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) of the EU PNR proposal, European Digital Rights (EDRi) statement: Today, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee adopted a proposal for the long-term storage of passengers on all flights entering and leaving the EU. The data will be used for profiling of innocent individuals as possible serious criminals. Two years […]
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