Blogs

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Data protection standards

Update on anti-spam legislation

In the previous EDRI-gram 6 EU-countries were mentioned that already have a spam-ban, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Greece, Italy and Austria, plus Hungary and Norway in Europe-at-large. We can now add France, Romania and Poland to this list. French E-Commerce Directive (approved 26.02.2003 in the Lower House) http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/ta/ta0089-2.pdf Polish E-commerce Directive (effective 10.03.2003) http://www.giodo.gov.pl/English/ust_podpis_el.htm Romanian E-commerce […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Surveillance and data retention

Call for public views on video-surveillance

The European data protection commissioners, united in the Article 29 Working Party, invite the public to respond to a position paper about videosurveillance. The paper gives an interesting overview of the differences in legislation and measures adopted in the different member states since the transposition of the Privacy Directive (95/46/EC). The Commissioners are specifically worried […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Just and open internet and technologies | Freedom of expression online

Censoring the internet: the situation in Turkey

‘Turkey, showing the symptoms of a developing country, has not yet established the jurisprudence necessary for the Internet. The existing Turkish laws, especially the Press Law, are naively applied to alleged lawbreakers on the Internet, resulting in ludicrous outcomes.’ Paper about internet censorship in Turkey by Kemal Altintas, Tolga Aydin and Varol Akman published 10 […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 4, 12 March 2003

February 26, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 3, 26 February 2003

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards

Data-retention scandal in Ireland

Ireland has had a secret data retention regime for almost a year, after the Cabinet confidentially instructed telecommunications operators to store traffic information about every phone, fax and mobile call for at least three years. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner Joe Meade revealed this last monday at a forum on data retention. Telcos even used […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards

Dutch interception secrecy

The quantity of police interceptions of telecommunication in the Netherlands is higher than anywhere else in the world, according to the few available official statistics. Government however, tries to maintain secrecy about the exact numbers and the technical specifications of the equipment. Last week, a Freedom-of-Information request by EDRi-member Bits of Freedom for statistics covering […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Privacy and confidentiality

ID requirements in Europe

Only a few EU-member states currently have ID-requirements. Privacy-authorities and civil rights groups alike doubt the practical effects and warn against highly arbitrary checks. Belgium, France and Spain, where ID-requirements have been in place for a long time, have bad track-records of police discrimination. Belgium currently has the strictest legislation, requiring everybody age 15 and […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards

Criticism gone from EP report on safer internet plan

In a remarkable change of heart, rapporteur Bill Newton Dunn removed all criticism from his draft report on the Safer Internet Action Plan (EU Document Number COD/2002/0071). In stead of the original recommendation to discontinue the program because of its complete in-effectiveness, Mr. Newton Dunn (British Liberal) now pleads for an extension of the program. […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 2, 12 February 2003

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Freedom of expression online

Internet censorship in Switzerland

In Switzerland, internet censorship is gaining ground. 2 recent events demonstrate this development. Last December, the examining magistrate of the canton Vaud issued a command to many Swiss internet service providers (ISPs), to block access to 3 websites. The websites, all hosted in the USA, contain strong criticism of a.o. the Swiss courts and are […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Just and open internet and technologies | Freedom of expression online

E-commerce directive transposition raises serious privacy and free speech concerns in France

France has started the process of implementing the European Directive on Electronic Commerce. The draft text of the Digital Economy Law (“Loi relative à l’économie numérique” or LEN in French) deals with ISP liability, electronic contracts and unsolicited commercial emails, cryptography, cybercrime, and satellite systems. Among them, the most controversial provisions are those concerning cryptography, […]