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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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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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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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European Parliament to decide on the future of the open Internet (Update)
The Internet has changed our society, enhanced our freedoms and our economy. One of the main reasons for this is the openness of the Internet – anyone has the potential to communicate with anyone, without permission and without discrimination. This is the essence of the neutral, open Internet. This is net neutrality. This openness is […]
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Failure Of “Licenses For Europe”
Ahead of the last meeting of the “Licences for Europe” initiative, EDRi together with other four European civil rights organisations – Centrum Cyfrowe, Kennisland, Modern Poland Foundation and La Quadrature du Net – released, on 13 November 2013, the following joint press release reaffirming the urgent need of an European Copyright reform. Today, the Licenses […]
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Microsoft And Skype May Continue To Send Europeans’ Data To US
On 18 November 2013, Luxembourg’s Data Protection Authority (National Commission for Data Protection – CNPD) decided that Microsoft and Skype subsidiaries in Luxembourg have not broken EU privacy law by sending Europeans’ data to the US, although we all know where this data goes. As a response to a complain filed by Europe v Facebook […]
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Search Engines Pushed To Inefficient Internet Filtering
The UK government continues its endeavours to censor the Internet and has succeeded in convincing search engines to filter search term results “associated” with child abuse images within its child abuse policy, despite the lack of proof of any efficiency of such measures, the rinks to abuses and the dangers to the citizens’ democratic rights. […]
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EDPS: Still A Lot Of Work To Be Done
In a press release published on 15 November 2013, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), criticised the Commission proposal for a Regulation laying down measures concerning the European single market for electronic communications. The announced goal of this Regulation is to ease the requirements for communications providers, standardize wholesale products, aiming at harmonising the rights […]
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Bogus hearing of the UK intelligence agencies
On 7 November 2013, the heads of the three UK internal and foreign intelligence agencies, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, were publicly heard by UK’s secretive intelligence and security committee (ISC) concerning Snowden’s leaks regarding the mass surveillance by US and UK intelligence. Although this was a historical even being the first instance when heads of […]
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