Open letters
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Civil society calls for the EU AI act to better protect people on the move
In an open letter published today, 192 organisations and individuals call on the EU to protect people on the move. As the European Parliament amends the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), preventing AI harms in the field of AI and migration is vital. AI systems are increasingly developed, tested and deployed to judge and control migrants and people on the move in harmful ways.
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Civil society groups urge EU Parliament to use all its powers to ensure Digital Markets Act enforcement has necessary resources
On June 28, EDRi and 16 civil society organisations urged the European Parliament to focus its attention on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) enforcement.
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Belgium’s data retention law must not undermine people’s right to privacy
Belgium's Parliament will soon vote on the draft law on the collection and retention of identification data and metadata in the electronic communications sector and the provision of such data to authorities. This draft law, as it is and if adopted without adequate adjustments, would pose a threat to people’s rights, such as the right to privacy and data protection, freedom of expression and information, press freedoms and professional secrecy guarantees, and would potentially set a dangerous precedent for other Member States.
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The European Commission threatens to undermine the core values of the free and open internet
On 8 June, 34 civil society organisations from 17 countries published a joint statement to raise their concerns with Commissioner Magreth Vestager’s and Commissioner Thierry Breton’s public statement to alter the regulatory framework underpinning the free and open internet.
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European Commission must uphold privacy, security and free expression by withdrawing new law, say civil society
In May, the European Commission proposed a new law: the CSA Regulation. If passed, this law would turn the internet into a space that is dangerous for everyone’s privacy, security and free expression. EDRi is one of 118 organisations calling instead for tailored, effective, rights-compliant and technically-feasible alternatives to tackle this grave issue.
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Stop data retention in Germany and the European Union
Germany must show true leadership and set a strong precedent in the EU against the use of mass data retention to fight serious crimes. Mass data retention is one of the most privacy-intrusive instruments that treat everybody as criminals by presumption. It is high time that European governments implement rights-respecting and proportionate solutions in police investigations. Read the open letter EDRi and 12 civil society organisations sent to the German ministers of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to urge them to stop the use of data retention practices in crime investigations.
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The voices of human rights defenders affected by the Pegasus spyware must be heard
EDRi and 22 civil society organisations urge the established European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware to ensure that the systematic targetting of human rights defenders with these technologies is fully examined by the Committee, and that the voices of human rights defenders affected are heard.
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Digital rights organisations call to dismiss the media exemption in the European Media Freedom Act
EDRi and our members Homo Digitalis, Access Now, EFN, Vrijschrift, and Državljan D are calling on the European Commissioners Vestager, Jourová and Breton to dismiss the ‘media exemption’ in the EMFA.
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Will the European Parliament stand up for our rights by prohibiting biometric mass surveillance in the AI Act?
On 10 May, EDRi and 52 organisations wrote to the Members of the European Parliament to ask them to ban the remote use of these technologies in publicly accessible spaces to protect all the places where we exercise our rights and come together as communities from becoming sites of mass surveillance where we are all treated as suspects.
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Threat to the protection of personal data in Belgium: European civil society is concerned
EDRi, alongisde multiple civil society organisations, is the signatory of an open letter addressed to the Belgian Parliament, demanding better enforcement of the European data protection rules and guarantees of political independence of the Belgian Data Protection Authority.
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A new crisis response mechanism for the DSA
EDRi is one of 38 civil society organisations jointly raising our voices to the DSA negotiators to stop negotiating outside their respective mandates and respect the democratic process of the EU. We demand concrete improvements necessary for the Crisis Response Mechanism (CRM) to respect international human rights law and prevent the future abuse of those emergency powers. Add your voice now!
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France must not betray European citizens on the DSA at the 11th hour
As civil society, we welcomed Minister Cedric O’s commitment on Friday to prohibit targeted advertising to minors as well as the use of sensitive data for ad targeting in the DSA. Now the French Council Presidency must follow through and protect citizens, 35 NGOs write in an open letter.
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