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Russia accused for blocking news sites criticising Putin
Russia has blocked a number of major news sites including the online newspapers Grani and Ejednevni Jurnal, Garry Kasparov’s opposition information site, the blog of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and the website of the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy. A law allowing the blocking of internet sites on the order of prosecutors without a court […]
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UK privacy groups file complaint on medical data in Google Cloud
UK privacy groups Big Brother Watch, medConfidential and the EDRi member Foundation for Information Policy Research have filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection authority. The complaint follows revelations that PA Consulting Group, a technology and innovation consultancy, uploaded a large quantity of data to Google’s cloud-based Big Data service […]
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Macedonia bans gambling, raises concern over Internet censorship
Macedonia’s government has announced plans to block access to foreign gambling sites in an effort to prevent an outflow of capital. The ban will occur at some point in March and follows a change in the Law of Games and Chance adopted on the 28 December 2013. Far from banning gambling outright – the Macedonian […]
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Extensive surveillance in the draft Finnish cyber intelligence law
Finnish government is in process of preparing of a new law on cyber intelligence. The draft by the Ministry of Defence working group preparing the law suggests giving the authorities such as Security Intelligence Service, National Bureau of Investigation, Communications Regulatory Authority and Defence Forces a mandate for a wide surveillance of online communications, including […]
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ENDitorial: Microsoft’s terms of service strike again
Under Microsoft’s terms of service, the company gives itself the right to do almost anything at any time and for any reason. This ranges from the bizarre – they reserve the right to withdraw participation in Bing ads “at any time for any reason or for no reason” – to the ridiculous – their “code […]
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We Promise : Driving Democracy in the Digital Age
Press briefing & panel discussion in the European Parliament, 1 April at 2pm, Room PHS 0A50 In the course of the current legislature, the European Parliament took important steps towards improved civil rights and a more democratic European Union. It listened to citizens when rejecting ACTA, it passed several Resolutions supporting net neutrality, it listened […]
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FAQ: Open Internet provisions in the Telecoms Single Market Regulation
After she won the vote in ITRE yesterday Pilar del Castillo published this FAQ on the controversial Open Internet provisions of the Telecom Single Market Regulation. We took the liberty of commenting on her answers. What is the open internet-net neutrality debate about? The main issue is to ensure that the internet remains open. In […]
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European Parliament committee votes against free and open internet
The European Parliament’s Industry Committee this morning voted to bring an end to the free, open and competitive internet that has brought so much social and economic benefit to European citizens and people around the globe. In keeping with the intentions behind the European Commission’s initial proposal, the Industry Committee’s text is confused, misleading and […]
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Facebook subject to German data protection law, court rules
A recent decision from the High Court of Berlin rules that Facebook is subject to German data protection law. The ruling contradicts a previous ruling by the Administrative Court of Appeals of the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein, which ruled in April last year that Irish data protection rules applied over German data processing, since German […]
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European Parliament votes on the Data Protection Reform and the report on Mass surveillance
On March 12, the European Parliament adopted the Data Protection Reform Package and the report on the impact of mass surveillance programmes on EU citizens. These votes represent another crucial step towards protecting European right to privacy and the completion of the long-awaited reform proposed by the European Commission back in January 2012. However, this […]
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Enemies of the Internet 2014: entities at the heart of censorship and surveillance
This year’s “Enemies of the Internet” report, which Reporters Without Borders publishes every year on World Day Against Cyber-Censorship (12 March), highlights the government units and agencies that implement online censorship and surveillance. These entities, which include Pakistan’s Telecommunication Authority, North Korea’s Central Scientific and Technological Information Agency, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications and […]
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Macedonian Media Freedom in freefall
Over the past five years, Macedonia has fallen from 34th on the World PressFreedom Indext to 123rd and the decline shows no sign of slowing. Part of the problem was the shutting down of the most viewed TV station (A1 TV) and three associated newspapers, following the questionable arrest, conviction and incarceration of the owner. […]
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