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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a totally unexpected move, the Romanian Parliament has decided to re-criminalise libel and insult offences, that were repealed in 2006.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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“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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European Parliament Will Rule On Net Neutrality
EDRi has waited for years for concrete proposals to enshrine the net neutrality principle in the European Union law. Since 2010, there has also been an increasing number of calls from the European Parliament to guarantee net neutrality. Finally, in September 2013, the European Commission has proposed a draft Regulation which aims at protecting the […]
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Paris court orders search engines and ISPs to block websites
In a case dating back from December 2011, brought to court by the French Association of Cinema Producers, a group representing more than 120 companies including Paramount and Sony, together with other film industry organisations, the High Court of Paris has decided, on 28 November 2013, to order Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to completely de-list […]
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Google In Breach Of The Dutch Data Protection Act
The Dutch Data Protection Authority has recently issued a report concluding that Google is in breach of the Dutch Data Protection Act, with its new privacy policy. The report is a result of the investigations carried out at the initiation of the French data protection authority (CNIL) on behalf of all European data protection authorities […]
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ECJ Advocate General: Forcing ISPs To Block Websites Could Be Legal
The Austrian Supreme Court has sent a request to the European Court of Justice to clarify whether an ISP providing Internet access to those using an alleged illegal website was to be considered as an intermediary. It also asked for an interpretation of the EU rules on the content and procedure for the issuing of […]
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Ireland: Google Ordered To Remove Knowledge Graph Result
On 28 November 2013, Google received an ex-parte interim order from an Irish court to block the publication of a photo image of convicted solicitor Thomas Byrne which appears as a search result alongside the profile of Irish Senator Thomas Byrne, a solicitor himself. Google considers it cannot be held liable for what comes up […]
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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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