Our work
EDRi is the biggest European network defending rights and freedoms online. We work to to challenge private and state actors who abuse their power to control or manipulate the public. We do so by advocating for robust and enforced laws, informing and mobilising people, promoting a healthy and accountable technology market, and building a movement of organisations and individuals committed to digital rights and freedoms in a connected world.
Filter resources
-
Winter is here
This autumn announces itself much colder and threatening for our rights and freedoms than we thought: The e-Privacy Regulation and copyright reform are the two main pieces of EU legislation that will keep the digital rights defenders of EDRi’s Brussels office busy. We will also continue our work on implementation of the General Data Protection […]
Read more
-
Controversial testing of facial recognition software in Germany
At the end of August 2017, German police has been testing a facial recognition software at Südkreuz train station in Berlin. The system was tested on 300 volunteers. The goal was to evaluate the accuracy of the software in recognising and distinguishing them from the crowd – a feature that the police hopes to ultimately […]
Read more
-
Six states raise concerns about legality of Copyright Directive
According to a new leak, a number of EU Member States share our serious concerns about the proposal for mass surveillance and censorship of uploads to the internet in Europe, included in the European Commission’s proposal for a new copyright Directive. Those Member States seem unwilling to build a censorship machine forcing EU countries to […]
Read more
-
Member in the Spotlight: Electronic Frontier Norway
Electronic Frontier Norway is working for digital rights, such as freedom of speech, privacy, freedom from surveillance, open standards, public access to publicly funded research and data, user-controlled software and the right to copy.
Read more
-
EU decision-making is not EU administration, says EU administration
In 2016, the EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly made some recommendations to improve the transparency of the “trilogue” process. Trilogues are informal negotiations conducted between a small number of representatives of the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament and the Commission, and they are increasingly used to circumvent the traditional, treaty-based decision-making process of […]
Read more
-
The privacy movement and dissent: Whistleblowing
This is the second blogpost of a series, originally published by EDRi member Bits of Freedom, that explains how the activists of a Berlin-based privacy movement operate, organise, and express dissent. The series is inspired by a thesis by Loes Derks van de Ven, which describes the privacy movement as she encountered it from 2013 […]
Read more
-
The School of Rock(ing) EU Copyright 2017
What is the School of Rock(ing) Copyright? The European Union (EU) is currently reforming its copyright legislation. Such reforms are rare, their effects intended to last for many years, with their consequences having a direct impact on the lives of all individuals. In cooperation with Communia and Wikimedia, EDRi is organising a series of workshops […]
Read more
-
Italy plans to extend telecoms data retention and increase censorship powers
On 19 July 2017, the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament approved two amendments to existing laws. One of the amendments aims at extending telecommunications data retention to six years, while the other gives Agcom, the communications regulator, powers to order takedown and blocking of online content without judicial oversight. Data retention in Italy […]
Read more
-
Stalking is easy with Facebook, and now even easier with Snapchat
We seem to get more and more accustomed to using apps that can easily track our movements. It is convenient to simply share your location with friends, instead of sending messages or calling to arrange where to meet. But are you aware of when and how you are giving the companies an insight into our […]
Read more
-
Dutch Senate votes in favour of dragnet surveillance powers
On 11 July 2017, the Dutch Senate passed the bill for the new Intelligence and Security Services Act. With the Senate vote, a years-long political battle has come to an end: the secret services have been given dragnet surveillance powers.
Read more
-
PNR: EU Court rules that draft EU/Canada air passenger data deal is unacceptable
Today, on 26 July 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed that the EU/Canada deal on collection of air travellers’ data and sharing it breaches European law. This is the third time that the European Court has ruled against arrangements for mandatory storage of personal data. This is good news for […]
Read more
-
#ValuesGap: Commercial interests win where all others fail
A European Parliament Committee decided that filtering all uploads to the internet as a method to prevent terrorism and “the most harmful content” is unacceptable. However, the same Committee decided that the same policy is acceptable for restricting use, including legal use, of copyrighted material.
Read more