Blogs
Filter by...
-
EDRi launches privacy trainings in the European Parliament
On 23 January 2015, EDRi organised its first series of privacy and IT security training sessions in the European Parliament (EP). Three Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and their assistants from throughout the political spectrum – European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), European United Left, Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) and the Greens, European Free […]
Read more
-
Spanish Citizens’ Security Bill: Many restrictions, few freedoms
In summer 2014, the EDRi-gram reported on the Spanish bill on the Protection of Citizens’ Security, shedding light on some of its most controversial measures. In December 2014, the Spanish Congress passed the Citizens’ Security bill by 181 votes to 141. Now, the bill will be discussed in the Senate until the end of March […]
Read more
-
Press release – Help us save the Internet!
Civil society, industry representatives and consumer groups join forces to appeal to ambassadors: Help us save the Internet! European Digital Rights (EDRi), together with other civil society organisations, consumer groups and industry representatives, sent today an open letter [pdf] to Member State Ambassadors to the European Union, reminding them of the importance of an open, […]
Read more
-
PEN report reveals concerns about the impact of mass surveillance
On 5 January 2015, PEN American Center published a report “Global chilling: The impact of mass surveillance on international writers”. The report introduces the results of a survey of writers, to investigate how mass surveillance influences their thinking, research and writing, as well as their views of government surveillance by the US and its impact […]
Read more
-
Germany gets warning about warning letters
Ever since the adoption of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive (IPRED) in 2004, and its ensuing transposition into national laws, warning letters based on alleged copyright infringements have become big business for the German content-industry, anti-piracy firms and their affiliated lawyers. From the perspective of hundreds of thousands of internet users, however, they are a nuisance […]
Read more
-
Romanian cybersecurity law sent to the Constitutional Court
A new law on cybersecurity, previously reported in the EDRi-gram, was adopted by the Romanian Parliament at the end of 2014. The law gives the Romanian Intelligence Agency (SRI) access to any computer data owned by private companies, without a court order. The proposal was tacitly adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on 17 September. […]
Read more
-
Legal Service Opinion on CJEU Data Retention ruling
The European Parliament (EP) legal services last week presented an opinion on the Court of Justice of the EU’s (CJEU) ruling on the Data Retention Directive (DRD) and its implications. The opinion, after restating the principles that are essential to permit any interference on fundamental rights (proportionality, justification and necessity), answered specific questions raised by […]
Read more
-
European Ombudsman does not see sufficient transparency in TTIP
On 6 January 2015, the European Ombudsman, the EU authority dealing with maladministration in the institutions of the European Union, adopted ten recommendations for the Commission to become transparent in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. In her decision, the Ombudsman followed recommendations made by EDRi in our response to the public consultation […]
Read more
-
EDRi’s work in 2014
EDRi continued to go to strength in 2014, with a hugely significant victory on net neutrality in the European Parliament and an innovative and successful campaign to raise the profile of our issues in the elections in May. Our successes last year built on a strong development of the organisation in recent years. Since 2009, […]
Read more
-
Danish government plans to re-introduce session logging
The Danish response to the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the Data Retention Directive was fairly limited. On 2 June 2014, the Ministry of Justice produced a legal analysis saying that there was no reason to believe that the Danish data retention law was in conflict with the […]
Read more
-
ENDitorial: Paris attack: Imagine if political leaders were leaders
Imagine if our political leaders were leaders. Imagine if our “leaders” defended our freedoms by defending our freedoms. Imagine if, instead of dragging another set of restrictive measures from the shelf where they sat waiting to exploit the next atrocity, Europe’s leaders decided that the principles that Charlie Hebdo defends are actually worth defending. Imagine, […]
Read more
-
Googling your brain: latest “data protection” proposals from Council
When the European Commission proposed its Data Protection Directive in 1995, it made the decision not to give the EU Member States the option to opt out of its profiling (“automated decision-making”) provisions. Even in the days before “big data” and rampant mass surveillance, the dangers of using personal data to make decisions based on […]
Read more
