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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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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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The EC consultation on the review of EU copyright rules is over
On 5 March 2014, three months after its launch, the European Commission closed the public consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules. This public consultation is part of the European Commission’s effort to review and modernise copyright rules in the EU and to adapt the current system to the digital age. The 2001/29/EC Directive […]
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Internet censorship and surveillance in Turkey
The Turkish government recently passed a new law that will deepen the existing censorship and surveillance on the Internet. The new law is an amendment to Law #5651, an article of which has been previously condemned by European Court of Human Rights (Ahmet Yildirim vs. Turkish Government case where the Court ruled that Turkey had […]
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Danish government plans to create a Center for Cybersecurity with privacy-invasive powers
In 2011, the Danish parliament voted unanimously to create a GovCERT service responsible for cybersecurity issues for government institutions and critical infrastructure. The 2011 law allows GovCERT to collect and retain traffic data (metadata) and packet data (contents) for the institutions and networks which are monitored by GovCERT. Data associated with security events can be […]
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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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US wants to undermine privacy in TTIP negotiations
In the EU-US trade negotiations (TTIP/TAFTA) the US tabled a proposal that would prohibit to require local data storage. If the EU accepts this proposal, the EU would give away an instrument essential to protect privacy. On 5 March 2014 the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament organised a meeting on the complex relationship between […]
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