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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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EU Council worries that data protection reform is too fast
The recent EU Council allegedly decided to slow down the speed of the reform of data protection arguing that it was moving too fast. Germany, for example, was reportedly worried about "not moving too quickly". By a strange coincidence, this is exactly the same argument used by the main lobbying groups. However, if the data […]
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NSA’s Long Data Collection Arm Reaches Everybody
The new revelations from Snowden show that NSA seems to spy on everybody, allies or enemies alike, collecting data form everywhere and everyone, in order to get a “diplomatic advantage” over allies such as France and Germany or an “economic advantage” over countries such as Japan or Brazil. Or even more? NY Times explains that […]
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The Russian Govt Seeks To Increase Its Control Over The Internet
The Russian security authorities are taking new measures to expand their surveillance of the Internet by requiring ISPs to store all traffic temporarily and make it available to the Federal Security Service (FSB). According to an article published by newspaper Kommersant, Vympelkom, the owner of the mobile network Beeline, made a complaint to the Ministry […]
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Slovakia: Court Orders An ISP To Stop Breaching Net Neutrality
The first instance court – District Court in Bratislava I, issued on 24 October 2013 a preliminary injunction prohibiting continuance of net neutrality breach by one of the Internet access providers. The injunction was granted in a ongoing unfair competition law case between two ISPs, Slovak Antik and Dutch UPC. The case already started in […]
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Europe V Facebook’s Irish Complaint Again On The Table
The Irish High Court has decided to review the lack of reaction of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in relation to the PRISM scandal. This decision is a result of DPC’s reaction to student group Europe v Facebook (EvF) which had filed a complaint against Facebook Ireland Ltd, considering that it violated data protection […]
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European Parliament draft report on private copy levies – serious or satire?
French Socialist MEP Françoise Castex published her draft report on private copying levies on 9 October. The biggest question that the document raises is… are you serious, Ms Castex? The policy issue being addressed is that “creators” are meant to be “compensated” for private copies that are made of legally acquired content, such as music […]
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France is demanding explanations from the US over NSA surveillance
On 21 October 2013, the French government summoned Charles Rivkin, the US ambassador in France, demanding urgent explanation regarding the revelations by Le Monde that, according to the documents released by Edward Snowden, NSA has intercepted French citizens’ phone and internet communications, at a massive scale. Le Monde revealed on that day that, during a […]
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ECtHR: Internet News Portal Liable For The Offensive Online Comments
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on 10 October 2013 in the case Delfi AS vs. Estonia that an Internet news portal was liable for the offensive comments that were posted by the readers underneath its online articles. The Court held that the finding of liability by the Estonian courts was a justified […]
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Increased level of online censorship in Italy
AGECOM, Italy’s independent Electronic Communications Authority, is on the verge of undertaking the power of ordering the removal of any online content that it deems to be in violation of the copyright law, without the need of the parliament or court approval. Despite strong criticism from NGOs, ISPs, other companies or legal practitioners, the authority’ […]
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European Court Of Justice: Fingerprints In Electronic Passport Are OK
The European Court of Justice ruled on 17 October 2013 that the inclusion of the fingerprints in the EU electronic passports is lawful. While the Court acknowledged that taking and storing of fingerprints in passports constitutes an infringement of the rights to respect for private life and the protection of personal data, it ruled that […]
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