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Internet Governance Forum and Internet Ungovernance Forum
The ninth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 2-5 September. EDRi member Alternative Informatics Association (AIA) submitted four proposals to the IGF, but all of them were rejected. As a result, AIA decided to organise a parallel event, the Internet Ungovernance Forum (IUF). The IUF attracted considerable interest among Internet researchers and activists […]
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Germany exports surveillance technologies to human rights violators
From Mexico to Mozambique to Pakistan and beyond, there is now ample evidence that governments across the globe are using mass surveillance technologies to spy on their citizens. Who makes these technologies? And who benefits from their sales? Germany is a major exporter of these technologies and , at the same time as digital communications […]
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Finnish copyright initiative: Unbalanced expert hearings
In its meeting on 9 September, the Education and Culture Committee of the Finnish parliament decided to continue the expert hearings for the citizens’ initiative on an update to the copyright legislation, “Common Sense For Copyright”. The decision was somewhat unexpected and a positive surprise, as the original agenda of the meeting stated that the […]
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Open letter to Google’s Advisory Council on the “right to be forgotten”
On 9 September, European and international civil rights organisations submitted an open letter (pdf) to Google’s Advisory Council on their assessment of the so-called “right to be forgotten”. The groups urge the Council’s members to avoid inadvertently delaying the adoption of the data protection reform package. They remind the members of the urgent need for […]
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The Principles Week of Action: A world without mass surveillance
Between 15 and 19 September, several digital rights organisations, including EDRi and many of its members, will be celebrating the first anniversary of the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance. The Principles were first launched in the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 20 September 2013. Drawing on international law […]
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TTIP: where the Good Samaritan meets the Trojan Horse
The EU and US are currently negotiating a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The US negotiator, the United States Trade Representative, is reported to be soliciting support for inclusion of provisions from Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in TTIP and other trade agreements being negotiated by the US. So far so […]
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Online freedoms in Serbia still under threat, analysis shows
SHARE Foundation, an organisation dedicated to protecting digital rights in Serbia, analysed the state of online media freedoms in the country. Examples of technical attacks on media websites, threats and insults to online journalists show a worrying trend of pressure in the digital environment. During the devastating floods that hit Serbia and the region in […]
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Europe vs. Facebook class action attracts over 60 000 plaintiffs
Privacy activist Max Schrems, founder of the “Europe-v-Facebook” initiative, is known for his battles involving Internet social network giant Facebook. However, all the lawsuits he filed in Ireland haven’t led to meaningful outcomes, so far. Therefore, Mr. Schrems now takes a different approach, by suing Facebook Ireland Ltd. This time he has filed suit in […]
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Canadian data broker tries to sell hacked online customer data
A Canadian man, Jason Ferguson, is currently under an ongoing investigation after he tried to resell hacked data of 650,000 customers of the Irish bookmaker, Paddy Power, for the price of 7,600 Euro (or a fraction over one cent per person). The hacked files, containing the names, email addresses, emails and birthdates were initially illegally […]
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Internet Ungovernance Forum – civil society counterbalance to IGF
The ninth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be held on 2-5 September 2014 in Istanbul, with the theme “Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multistakeholder Internet Governance”. Although civil society and activists who are fighting for a free Internet are reassembled in the IGF meetings, governments and corporations have a much larger representation. As an attempt to […]
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Ukraine: Sanctions against Russia to result in media censorship?
On 12 August, the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) approved in first reading a draft law (No. 4453) to impose sanctions on Russian companies and individuals over their alleged support and financing of separatism in Ukraine. The draft law included provisions to allow the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (RNBO) to shut down or block […]
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Google now supports AND opposes the “right to be forgotten”
In April 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled, unremarkably, that Google should amend search results that are unfair to individual users – if they are clearly out of date and irrelevant, for example. Google’s reaction was ferocious – it launched a major press campaign to try to undermine the legal basis for the ruling, […]
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