EDRi-gram, 29 October 2025

What has the EDRi network been up to over the past few weeks? Find out the latest digital rights news in our bi-weekly newsletter. In this edition: we're pondering digital fairness, budget cuts for the Austrian DPA and more.

By EDRi · October 29, 2025

In the past few weeks we have been grappling not just with the rain, wind and chill that autumn in Brussels brings with it, but also another somber realisation about the commercial spyware market. Let us remind you that spyware is an especially nefarious technology that can turn a phone into a real-time spying device, even remotely activating the microphone and camera. In recent weeks, through the investigative work of journalists, it was revealed that not only is the EU sitting on its hands when it comes to taking any action on spyware despite the numerous scandals, it is, in fact, actively funding the incredibly harmful spyware industry by giving them public money.

We are calling for an EU-wide ban on commercial spyware and an end to the market fueling this tech. EDRi member SHARE Foundation reiterate the same call in their new book which examines spyware through technical, legal, and practical lenses.

Since we’re on the subject on money, do you know where public money is not going? To ensure that fundamental right to data protection is actually protected in Austria. The Austrian data protection authority (DSB) is severely underfunded and undergoing more budget cuts. EDRi member epicenter.works and noyb say no way, and are filing a complaint with the EU Commission against Austria for incapacitating its DPA.

We also recently submitted a contribution to the Commission’s Call for Evidence on the upcoming Digital Fairness Act (DFA), so we’re pondering digital fairness. For EDRi, fairness in the digital environment is inseparable from fundamental rights, and the DFA is an essential opportunity to make fairness a structural rather than a voluntary add-on.

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European money is fueling the global spyware industry

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A stranger reading your messages, tracking your movements, scrolling through your photos. That’s what spyware can do – without you even knowing. It’s marketed as a tool to fight terrorism and crime, but it’s also used to silence journalists, activists, and political opponents. Greek journalist Vas Panagiotopoulos reveals how the EU and national governments give public funds to companies behind this powerful surveillance technology linked to human rights abuses and political repression. The same firms accused of helping authoritarian regimes are cashing in on European taxpayer money. Listen to the podcast and read Vas’s article on Follow the Money.

 

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