Blogs

March 11, 2020 · Blogs | Information democracy and participation | Disinformation and electoral interference

Facebook starts to increase transparency in political ads in the Balkans

Facebook has announced that it will expand its transparency system and confirmation of authenticity of ads about elections and politics starting from mid-March. Namely, Facebook will cover 32 additional countries, including Serbia and North Macedonia where the elections are to take place very soon.

March 11, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards

Security Information Service wins the Czech Big Brother Awards

The Czech Big Brother Award (BBA) 2019 winners are the Czech Security Information Service (BIS), the antivirus company Avast, and the energy company PRE. Positive prize of Edward Snowden went to the city of Prague.

March 11, 2020 · Blogs | Information democracy and participation | Artificial intelligence (AI)

Who should decide what we see online?

Online platforms rank and moderate content without letting us know how and why they do it. There is a pressing need for transparency of the practices and policies of these online platforms.

March 11, 2020 · Blogs | Just and open internet and technologies

Welcoming our new Senior Policy Advisor Sarah Chander!

European Digital Rights is proud to announce that Sarah Chander has joined the team at the Brussels office as the new Senior Policy Advisor.

March 4, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Cross border access to data

E-evidence and human rights: The Parliament is not quite there yet

The European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) is currently busy working out a compromise between its different political groups in order to establish a common position on the “e-evidence” Regulation.

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Biometrics

ECtHR: UK Police data retention scheme violated the right to privacy

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Information democracy and participation | Freedom of expression online

Copyright stakeholder dialogues: Compromise, frustration, dead end?

The second phase of the stakeholder dialogues on Article 17 of the Copyright Directive finished in December 2019. The two meetings of the third phase, focusing on the provisions of Article 17, were held on 16 January and 10 February 2020.

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Just and open internet and technologies | Privacy and surveillance | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Inclusive technologies | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Immigration, iris-scanning and iBorderCTRL

Technologies like automated decision-making, biometrics, and unpiloted drones are increasingly controlling migration and affecting millions of people on the move. This second blog post in our series on AI and migration highlights some of these uses, to show the very real impacts on people’s lives, exacerbated by a lack of meaningful governance and oversight mechanisms […]

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Just and open internet and technologies | Platform regulation

Can we rely on machines making decisions for us on illegal content?

While automation is necessary for handling a vast amount of content shared by users, it makes mistakes that can be far-reaching for your rights and the well-being of society. Most of us like to discuss our ideas and opinions on silly and serious issues, share happy and sad moments, and play together on the internet. […]

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Cross border access to data | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Click here to allow notifications in cross-border access to data

From a fundamental rights perspective, it’s essential that the proposal enabling cross-border access to data for criminal proceedings (“e-evidence”) includes a notification mechanism. However, this requirement of a notification seems to be out of the question for those advocating for “efficiency” of cross-border criminal investigations, even if that means abandoning the most basic procedural safeguards […]

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Swedish law enforcement given the permission to hack

On 18 February 2020, the Swedish parliament passed a law that enables Swedish law enforcement to hack into devices such as mobile phones and computers that the police thinks a suspect might use. As with the recent new data retention law only one party (and one member of another party) voted against the resolution (286-26 […]

February 26, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Romania: Mandatory SIM registration declared unconstitutional, again

On 18 February 2020, the Romanian Constitutional Court unanimously declared unconstitutional a new legislative act adopted in September 2019 introducing mandatory SIM card registration. The legislative act in question was an emergency ordinance issued by the Government which wanted to introduce this obligation as a measure “to improve the operation of the 112 emergency service […]