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UK ISP Filtering causes collateral damages
UK ISPs have started to implement a default filter for adult content online following the government’s endeavours which met success in 2013, under the pretext of protecting children from pornographic content. Unfortunately, UK ISPs have started to comply with the government’s requests. The default filter implies that all Internet providers need to opt-in in order […]
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Net neutrality campaign SaveTheInternet.eu
A broad coalition of civil rights organisations launched SaveTheInternet.eu, a campaign to protect Net neutrality in Europe. A recent proposal from the European Commission would restrict freedom of speech on the Internet, increase prices and stifle online innovation unless urgent action is taken. Citizens can now contact their Parliamentarians in the European Parliament’s Industry Committee […]
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AT&T’s “sponsored data” – a toll-road to nowhere
On 6 January, the US fixed and mobile operator AT&T announced a “service” allowing online services (such as search engines, social media, etc) to pay (“sponsor”) the data costs of end-users. Currently, people often have to pay for data that they download from the internet, whereas AT&T’s programme would allow certain services to be provided […]
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Digital Rights Sessions at 30c3
Over the next few days, the 30th edition of the Chaos Communication Congress will take place in Hamburg. If you are there, you can drop by our EDRi assembly located on the first floor in Garderobe 2 (beta map). We have teamed up with the EFF and NoisySquare for this joint assembly which will be […]
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France: Real-time interception of e-communications by security forces
The “loi de programmation militaire (LPM)”, the “military programming law”, was adopted on 10 December 2013 by the French Senate after having been approved in first reading by the Parliament. This law enables the French secret services to intercept any electronic communication, under the direct authorisation of Prime Minister or the President. All is not […]
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EU Data protection regulation stalled again
On 6 December 2013, the EU justice ministers took again a step back in adopting the EU Data Protection Regulation. The day was considered by EU commissioner for justice, Viviane Reding as a disappointing one for data privacy. What was this time? “The ministers did not want to make hasty decisions,” Lithuanian Justice Minister Juozas […]
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Romania: re-criminalising defamation?
In a totally unexpected move, the Romanian Parliament has decided to re-criminalise libel and insult offences, that were repealed in 2006. Although the Parliament was supposed to discuss something else – an old bill from 2011 that proposed the repeal of a single article of the Criminal Code, namely Article 74/1 – the bill was […]
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Italian telecom authority gets the power to block websites
AGCOM, Italy’s Electronic Communications Authority decided on 12 December 2013 to take in its hands the powers to order the removal of any online content for alleged copyright violation, with the purpose to speed up the procedure. The authority had drafted new regulations allowing it to order a domain seizure or ISP blockade of any […]
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Interim ruling by European Court condemns massive storage of communications data
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice today issued a devastating Opinion on the European Directive that requires European telecommunications providers to store details of all electronic communications for between six months to two years. The case was brought before the Court by EDRi-member Digital Rights Ireland and AKVorrat.at in close cooperation with […]
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No Warrant Internet Spying By French Authorities
On 26 November 2013, the French National Assembly discussed the draft of the military programming law which could give the authorities the power to collect, without a judge warrant and in real time, telecom users’ data as a result of an amendment introduced by the Senate in first reading. Presently the internal security code stipulates […]
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Bits of Freedom presents policy package against mass surveillance
On 4 December 2013 the EDRi member Dutch digital rights organisation Bits of Freedom launched a website petitioning the Dutch government to take numerous concrete measures to end mass surveillance. It officially presented the policy package to the Minister of Interior Affairs the day before. On the campaign website, bespied-ons-niet.nl (translated as: ‘don’t spy on […]
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“Rebuilding Trust In EU – US Data Flows” – Some Lowlights
On 27 November 2013, the European Commission finally published its Communication on the “Safe Harbor” agreement as part of a broader package on EU/US data flows. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Communication was the statement that the PNR agreement and other data sharing agreements work without substantiating any of those claims. Simply asking […]
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