On the ground
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Turkish civil society: Declaration on the state of the internet
On the occasion of the Internet Week (11-24 April 2019) and the 26th anniversary of the arrival of the internet in the country, Turkish civil society organisations focusing on digital rights have released a declaration on the state of the internet.
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Austria: New “responsibility” law will lead to self-censorship
Shortly after the EU gave green light to upload filters, two laws were proposed in Austria, with the alleged goal of tackling online hate speech, that rang the alarm bells.
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Will Serbia adjust its data protection framework to GDPR?
After a process that took more than five years, the National Assembly of Serbia finally adopted a new Law on Personal Data Protection in November 2018. The law closely follows EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), almost to the point of literal translation into Serbian of some parts of the text. That was expected, due […]
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Strategic litigation against civil rights violations in police laws
Almost every German state has expanded or is preparing to expand police powers. The police authorities are now more often allowed to interfere with civil rights, even before a specific danger has been identified. They are also given new means to conduct secret surveillance online. EDRi member Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF, Society for Civil Rights) […]
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Facebook Custom Audience illegal without explicit user consent
Online shops and marketers routinely share customer data with Facebook to reach them with targeted advertising. Turns out that in many cases this is illegal. A ground-breaking decision by a German Data Protection Authority (DPA) recently ruled that matching customers’ email addresses with their Facebook accounts requires their explicit consent.
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UK: Online Harms Strategy must “design in” fundamental rights
After months of waiting and speculation, the United Kingdom government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has finally published its White Paper on Online Harms – now appearing as a joint publication with the Home Office. The expected duty of care proposal is present, but substantive detail on what this actually means remains […]
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EU Council Presidency outlines future counter-terrorism priorities
A note produced by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union sets out the EU’s response to terrorism since 2015. It highlights the main measures adopted and calls for a “reflection process on the way forward” in a number of areas including “interoperability and extended use of biometrics”; implementing the EU Passenger […]
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New freedom of information law proposed in North Macedonia
The right to freedom of information (FOI) is protected by law in North Macedonia since 2006. In theory, the law complies with international standards and creates a solid basis for establishing a system to protect this right. However, the practice during the past 12 years has shown legal gaps, inconvenient practices, and inefficiency of the […]
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ApTI submits complaint on Romanian GDPR implementation
In November 2018, the RISE Project case showed that the Romanian Data Protection Authority (ANSPDCP or Romanian DPA) was unprepared to respond to cases that involve both the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy. RISE Project’s investigative journalism story #TeleormanLeaks was an important signal that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) […]
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Czech BBA: Facebook and iROBOT the worst privacy intruders of 2018
The 14th Czech Big Brother Awards – anti-awards for those who have done the most to threaten personal privacy in 2018 – were announced on 14 February 2019. A jury of nine technology experts, lawyers and journalists chose the worst privacy intruders based on suggestions made by the general public. The Awards in four different […]
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Light at the end of the cyber tunnel: New IoT consumer standard
In February 2019, positive advancements were made regarding security standards in consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices: The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) published a standard numbered TS 103 645, more appealingly named “Cyber Security for Consumer Internet of Things”. Under this new standard, compliant products will be expected to have unique passwords, a vulnerability […]
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You cannot post “a bag of bones” on Facebook
However shocking our reality may be, sometimes you have to face it. By censoring a news article about the horrific war in Yemen, Facebook completely disqualifies itself as a platform for public debate. This story should be heard “Chest heaving and eyes fluttering, the 3-year-old boy lay silently on a hospital bed in the highland […]
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