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Copyright stakeholder dialogues: Filters can’t understand context
On 16 December 2019, the European Commission held the fourth meeting of the Copyright Directive Article 17 stakeholder dialogues. During the “first phase”, meetings focused on the practices in different industries such as music, games, software, audiovisual and publishing. This meeting was the last of what the Commission called the “second phase”, where meetings were […]
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NCC Report: Online advertising industry is out of control
Today, on 14 January 2020, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC), a consumers group active on the field of digital rights, denounces in their report “Out of Control” current practices of the adtech industry, including systematic privacy breaches and unlawful behavioural profiling. The report focuses on the analysis of data traffic from ten popular apps such […]
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Bits of Freedom celebrates its 20th anniversary
EDRi member Bits of Freedom celebrates its 20 year anniversary. Bits of Freedom believes an open and just society is only possible when people can participate in public life without fear of repercussions. For this, every person needs to be free to share information and their private life needs to be respected. The right to […]
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Online content moderation: Where does the Commission stand?
The informal discussions (trilogues) between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission are progressing on the Terrorist Content Regulation (TCO, aka “TERREG”). While users’ safeguards and rights-protective measures remain the Parliament’s red lines, the Commission presses the co-legislators to adopt what was a pre-elections public relations exercise, rather than […]
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Say “no” to cookies – yet see your privacy crumble?
Cookie banners of large French websites turn a clear “no” into “fake consent”. EDRi member noyb has filed three General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complaints with the French Data Protection Regulator (CNIL).
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Spain: New law threatens internet freedoms
On 5 November 2019, the Royal Decree-Law 14/2019 that had been adopted on 31 October was published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE). This was just five days before the general elections that would take place on 10 November, under an undefined “exceptionality and urgency”, and justified by the “challenges posed by new technologies […]
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The many faces of facial recognition in the EU
In this second installment of EDRi's facial recognition and fundamental rights series, we look at how different EU Member States, institutions and other countries worldwide are responding to the use of this tech in public spaces.
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Casual attitude in intelligence sharing is troubling
A recent report by Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service CTIVD shows that the Dutch secret services regularly violate the law when sharing intelligence with foreign services. For the sake of privacy and freedom of communication, it is crucial that data sharing safeguards are both tightened and more strictly enforced.
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Letter to Member States calls for safeguards in Terrorist Content Regulation
On 16 December 2019, EDRi and Access Now sent a letter to EU Member States urging them ensure key safeguards on the proposed Regulation regarding the removal orders, the cross border mechanism and crucial exceptions for education, journalistic and research materials in the ongoing trilogue discussions. This letter is another step in the work that […]
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Facial recognition and fundamental rights 101
This is the first post in a series about the fundamental rights impacts of facial recognition. Private companies and governments worldwide are already experimenting with facial recognition technology. Individuals, lawmakers, developers - and everyone in between - should be aware of the rise of facial recognition, and the risks it poses to rights to privacy, freedom, democracy and non-discrimination.
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Shedding light on the Facebook content moderation centre in Athens
Following months of efforts, in early September 2019, EDRi observer Homo Digitalis managed to shed light on a case that concerns each and every Facebook user: a content moderation centre in Athens, Greece, tasked to moderate Facebook ads. As many other content moderation policies run by virtually unaccounatable private companies, this can pose threats to […]
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Interoperability: A way to escape toxic online environments
The political debate on the future Digital Services Act mostly revolves around the question of online hate speech and how to best counter it. Whether based on state intervention or self-regulatory efforts, the solutions to address this legitimate public policy objective will be manifold. In its letter to France criticising the draft legislation on hateful […]
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