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Two Danes arrested for publishing information about Popcorn Time
The Popcorn Time software has become a popular way of watching movies and TV shows online. The user is presented with an interface that has the look and feel of established streaming services, such as Netflix. In many cases, Popcorn Time is used to access content made available without the authorisation of the rights-holders, but stopping […]
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Safe Harbor: European Court Advocate General says Agreement should be declared invalid
This morning, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in his Opinion on the “Safe Harbor” Agreement with the United States, advised the Court to declare the entire Agreement invalid. The catalyst for the case was the mass surveillance practices of the United States. Sixteen years ago, the EU […]
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Generali, the health insurer who wants to know everything about you
On 20 May 2015, we published a collection of science fiction stories for the 300th edition of EDRi-gram newsletter – the premise of the collection was scenarios that we envisaged happening in 2025. We did not imagine that one of the stories on data collection practices by health insurers would be getting closer to reality […]
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Germany dreams of security: An ID for every “thing” connected
New infrastructures often resemble untapped oil sources – everyone tries to get in as early as possible in order to grab the biggest share. The German newspaper Die Zeit Online revealed in September that a chip manufacturer has apparently been going to great lengths to ensure a large share of the growing market of the […]
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State of play of internet freedom in the Netherlands
Dutch EDRi member Bits of Freedom is diligently watching a set of broad tendencies, such as the dominant positions of a handful of tech giants, the Internet of Things, and the idea that technology cannot be neutral. Bits of Freedom is also working hard to prevent the occurrence of a number of very real threats […]
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AVG starts selling personal data to third parties
The Czech Republic based security software vendor AVG Technologies recently updated its privacy policy. The objective of the changes, according to the company, was to explain in a more transparent manner to their users how it intends to use what it calls ”non-personal information”. The new privacy policy will take effect on 15 October 2015. […]
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Germany: The secret service’s 300-million-euro surveillance plan
This is a shortened English version of the German article originally published by Andre Meister on Netzpolitik.org. Translation and changes by Kirsten Fiedler and Nikolai Schnarrenberger. Fibreoptic surveillance, scanning of Internet traffic in real time, cracking encryption, hacking computers: Germany’s foreign intelligence agency “Bundesnachrichtendienst” (BND) is massively expanding its internet surveillance capabilities. On 21 September, […]
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European Commission & Data Retention – a faulty basis for decision-making*?
Due to the sensitive nature of this summary, we shared it with the European Commission to allow for any corrections or clarifications that were deemed necessary before publication. The draft was updated on the basis of the feedback that was received, but not all suggestions from the Commission services were accepted by us. As a […]
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More “right to be forgotten” confusion
In August 2015, the UK’s data protection Commissioner (the Information Commissioner) published a press release on implementation of the Google/Spain case that led to widespread confusion. Given that the story was about the de-linking of stories about stories that had been de-linked as a result of that case, maybe this is not entirely surprising! The […]
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EU secret profiling of air passengers nominated for “big brother awards”
Over the past 15 years, human rights, including the right to privacy, have been traded away to create ever-more invasive measures designed sometimes as tools to protect society against possible terrorist threats and sometimes as a means of being seen to be doing “something” in a show of security theatre. The leitmotif: “Safety First”. The […]
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EDRi is looking for a Communications trainee!
European Digital Rights (EDRi) is an international non-profit association of 33 digital civil rights organisations from 19 European countries. We defend and promote rights and freedoms in the digital environment, such as the right to privacy, freedom of expression, communication and access to information. EDRi is looking for a trainee who will be actively involved […]
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Romania: After PNR, a proposal for retention of tourist data
On 15 July 2015, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament narrowly voted in favour of the EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive proposal (32 in favour, 26 against, no abstentions), a mass surveillance measure to collect and process air traveller data for profiling purposes. This came after […]
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