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.
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Parliamentarians encourage online platforms to censor legal content
On 18 May 2017, the European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) adopted a report on the Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market.
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UK government pushes for companies to weaken encryption
The terrorist attack in Manchester on 22 May has led to a relaunch of the encryption debate in the UK. In December 2016, the UK parliament passed the Investigatory Powers Act. This wide-ranging surveillance law gives government ministers the power to issue Technical Capability Notices (TCNs), which can force companies to modify their products.These powers could […]
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EU Commission on FOI request: Incompetence or ill-intent?
In April 2017, we got a little curious about industry lobbying in Brussels surrounding the copyright reform. We therefore filed a freedom of information (FOI) request to access the correspondence that the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) of the European Commission received by rightsholders shortly before the reform proposal was finalised […]
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Irish police phone tapping undermines citizens’ rights
An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force has fallen, yet again, under public scrutiny for privacy violations of innocent citizens. An investigation by the Irish Independent newspaper has found that members of the public had their phones tapped without proper justification. The widespread phone tapping was revealed after a senior officer tried to highlight his […]
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Romanian Parliament: EU Copyright reform does more harm than good
While the European Parliament is in the middle of its discussions about the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, similar discussions are taking place in a number of Member State parliaments. The results of these conversations will influence the position that Member States take in the discussions in […]
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EU discusses future of data retention: “Indiscriminate retention no longer possible”
This is a translation of an article originally written by Anna Biselli on netzpolitik.org. Translation: Anna Biselli, Kirsten Fiedler. The German government is maintaining its unswerving commitment to make communications data retention obligatory from July 2017 onwards. Meanwhile, different EU level groups and institutions are discussing if or how data retention measures are compatible with […]
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ENDitorial: Consumer protection MEPs launch attack on consumers
Documents leaked by Julia Reda, a Member the European Parliament (MEP) show that parliamentarians on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), whose job it is to protect consumers and improve legal consistency in the EU, are planning an assault on citizens’ fundamental rights, legal coherence and even the ultimate authority of […]
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The EU must take action to protect whistleblowers
The right of citizens to report wrongdoing is a natural extension of the right of freedom of expression, and is linked to the principles of transparency and integrity. – Transparency International Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden are some of the most famous whistleblowers, thanks to their huge impact on the protection of human rights. However, there […]
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EU action needed: German NetzDG draft threatens freedom of expression
On 22 May 2017 six civil society and industry associations sent an open letter to eight EU Commissioners asking to take action against the German bill on “Enforcement on Social Networks”, the “NetzDG”.
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Looking back on our 2016 victories
Technological advancements in the digital world create new opportunities but also new challenges for human rights. Especially in the past year, the fear of extremism on the one side and extreme measures on the other resulted in the desire for swift political action and made defending citizen’s rights and freedoms online a difficult task. In […]
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Big Data for Big Impact – but not only a positive one
Technology has changed and keeps dramatically changing our everyday life by transforming the human species to advanced networked societies. To celebrate this digital revolution, 17 May is dedicated to the “World Telecommunication and Information Society Day” (WTISD-17). The theme for this year’s celebration is “Big Data for Big Impact”. Not so surprisingly, the buzzword “big […]
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ALTwitter – profiling with metadata
When we are sharing links, events or ideas through social media, we leave behind a trace of metadata: when and how often, which days of the week, in which language, using which hashtag, linking to which users or websites, and so on. Those details might not say much when we look at each piece of […]
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