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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European Commission will “monitor” existing EU data retention laws
The European Commission (EC) told EDRi that it “will continue monitoring legislative developments at the national level” regarding the existence of data retention laws in EU Member States. The EC provided this non-committal response to the letter we sent on 2 July 2015, asking the Commission to investigate illegal data retention laws in the European […]
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French Constitutional Council approves sweeping surveillance powers
On 23 July, the French Constitutional Council approved sweeping surveillance powers for intelligence agencies. In its decision, the Council declared almost all provisions constitutional, in contradiction to vehement opposition from civil rights groups, human rights experts, academia and the online business sector. The “Loi Renseignement” (also dubbed the “French Patriot Act”) was passed by the […]
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A new wave of Internet blocking in Turkey
On 25 July, the Turkish government ordered the blocking of 65 popular dissident and Kurdish websites and temporarily slowed down Twitter and Facebook access. This follows the government’s air attack against the Islamic State (Isis) and Kurdish forces in Syria. A few days earlier, Twitter was blocked entirely for a few hours. On 20 July, […]
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ENDitorial: European Parliament – translating freedoms into Chinese
In the autumn 2015, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament (LIBE) will resume its discussions of a draft resolution on “radicalisation”, led by Rachida Dati, a French conservative member. Her draft includes several bizarre statements, but one on Internet “giants” stands out as being particularly extreme. The proposal […]
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David Wessel: “I get between three and five take down notices daily”
This is a translation in the 50th edition of a series hosted at rechtaufremix.org, entitled “Remixers”. The series is about people and their experiences and attitudes to remixing and the remix culture. The 50th edition went back to talk to the very first interviewee: David Wessel aka Mashup-Germany. David Wessel was born in Cologne, but […]
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EU PNR document pool
The proposal for a EU PNR Directive (Fight against terrorism and serious crime: use of passenger name record (PNR) data (procedure file 2011/0023(COD) ) was adopted by the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee on 15 July 2015. The narrow vote (32 in favor, 26 against, no abstentions) in favour happened despite the rejection of this […]
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EU Commission – finally – confirms that its promise on data protection will be respected
Last April, EDRi, supported by other sixty-five NGOs from the European Union, North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia sent a letter (PDF) to the European Commission. The letter asked if the Commission would respect the “absolute red line” that the protection levels in the 1995 Data Protection Directive would be maintained. This […]
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Remembering Caspar Bowden
We are sad to report the death of EDRi member FIPR’s first Director, Caspar Bowden. Caspar was one of the people who met in 1998 to set up the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), in response to the introduction of what later became the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Caspar was FIPR’s Director from […]
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Remembering Özgür Uçkan
Özgür Uçkan, one of the pioneers of the digital rights and free Internet movement in Turkey, passed away on 10 July. He was 54 years old, and had been battling with cancer for two years. He was one of the founders of the Turkish EDRi member Alternative Informatics Association (AIA) and his contribution to the […]
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ICANN considers banning privacy services
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is proposing a new Internet policy which comes at the expense of human rights, especially privacy and freedom of speech. The proposed rules are addressed to companies that provide WHOIS privacy/proxy services (which restrict access to domain registrant information) and limit their availability to individuals only, […]
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Surveillance technology company Hacking Team hacked
On 5 July, Italian surveillance technology company Hacking Team was hacked. 400GB of data from its servers was shared on BitTorrent, and Hacking Team employees’ emails, invoices and other documents posted publicly via the company’s own Twitter feed (that was renamed “Hacked Team” for the occasion). The authenticity of the documents has not been independently […]
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Press release: EDRi asks for more clarity on net neutrality
This morning, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament (ITRE) formally accepted the text of the informal trialogue negotiations on the “Telecommunications Single Market” Regulation, which covers net neutrality and roaming. The text represents a significant improvement on the incoherent, contradictory and destructive approach promoted by the EU Council and European […]
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