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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EU Commission: IT companies to fix “hate speech on the Internet”
At the Colloquium on Fundamental Rights on 2 October 2015, EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová gave a widely-reported speech on “hate speech”. At the meeting, she announced that she was organising a meeting between “IT companies, business, national authorities and civil society” in order to “tackle” online hate speech. With […]
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Netherlands: New proposals for dragnet surveillance underway
In the Netherlands, online consultations by the government have been concluded on far-reaching proposals that foresee the expansion of surveillance powers of the intelligence services and the creation of new surveillance powers for the tax authorities (“Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten” and “Concept-Besluit Bijzondere vergaring nummergegevens telecommunicatie”). If proposed and enacted into law, they […]
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Civil rights groups condemn draft mass surveillance bill to be adopted in France
Today EDRi, together with 30 civil rights groups, sent the following letter to French parliamentarians to condemn a draft mass surveillance bill which is scheduled to be adopted on 1 October. You can download the letter in English (pdf) and in French (pdf). If your organisation wishes to sign, please contact us at brussels(at)edri.org. Dear […]
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Civil society calls for reform of trialogues in a letter to EU Commission, Parliament and Council
European Digital Rights (EDRi), together with 17 signatory organisations, today sent an open letter to European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council Secretary-General Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, calling for a major reform of the so-called “trialogues”. “Trialogues cannot be a means for EU institutions to circumvent their obligations with regard to transparency and […]
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Safe Harbor: European Court Advocate General says Agreement should be declared invalid
This morning, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in his Opinion on the “Safe Harbor” Agreement with the United States, advised the Court to declare the entire Agreement invalid. The catalyst for the case was the mass surveillance practices of the United States. Sixteen years ago, the EU […]
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Generali, the health insurer who wants to know everything about you
On 20 May 2015, we published a collection of science fiction stories for the 300th edition of EDRi-gram newsletter – the premise of the collection was scenarios that we envisaged happening in 2025. We did not imagine that one of the stories on data collection practices by health insurers would be getting closer to reality […]
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Germany dreams of security: An ID for every “thing” connected
New infrastructures often resemble untapped oil sources – everyone tries to get in as early as possible in order to grab the biggest share. The German newspaper Die Zeit Online revealed in September that a chip manufacturer has apparently been going to great lengths to ensure a large share of the growing market of the […]
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State of play of internet freedom in the Netherlands
Dutch EDRi member Bits of Freedom is diligently watching a set of broad tendencies, such as the dominant positions of a handful of tech giants, the Internet of Things, and the idea that technology cannot be neutral. Bits of Freedom is also working hard to prevent the occurrence of a number of very real threats […]
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AVG starts selling personal data to third parties
The Czech Republic based security software vendor AVG Technologies recently updated its privacy policy. The objective of the changes, according to the company, was to explain in a more transparent manner to their users how it intends to use what it calls ”non-personal information”. The new privacy policy will take effect on 15 October 2015. […]
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Germany: The secret service’s 300-million-euro surveillance plan
This is a shortened English version of the German article originally published by Andre Meister on Netzpolitik.org. Translation and changes by Kirsten Fiedler and Nikolai Schnarrenberger. Fibreoptic surveillance, scanning of Internet traffic in real time, cracking encryption, hacking computers: Germany’s foreign intelligence agency “Bundesnachrichtendienst” (BND) is massively expanding its internet surveillance capabilities. On 21 September, […]
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EU Parliament’s “radicalisation” draft report – lost in translation
The European Parliament is currently working on a non-binding Resolution on terrorist “radicalisation”. As is usual with such instruments, little attention is being paid to the initiative, because it is not binding legislation. Nonetheless, it will be a formal position of the European Parliament, and it’s important that the outcome will show adequate concern for […]
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ENDitorial: EU Commission ISDS proposal – a threat to democracy
The European Commission has published its investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform proposal for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the EU-US trade agreement currently under negotiation, and future trade agreements between the European Union and third countries. On the positive side, the reform proposal removes unfair procedural advantages for the United States and tries […]
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