Privacy and data protection
Privacy and data protection are essential for us to live, connect, work, create, organise and more. Governments and companies have long used mass surveillance for control trying to legitimise snooping for health, security or other reasons. The near-total digitisation of our lives has made it easier to control, profile and profit from our attention, data, bodies and behaviours in ways that are very difficult for us to understand and challenge. European data protection standards such as the GDPR are a good step forward but we need more to effectively ensure enforcement and protection against unlawful surveillance practices.
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Bits of Freedom files a complaint against intelligence services on behalf of millions of citizens
The Dutch secret services are illegally storing the data of millions of citizens. The supervisor does not have the means to do anything about this violation of the law, so EDRi member Bits of Freedom filed a formal complaint. It is high time that the secret services started to abide by the law. Our data should be removed from their servers.
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Policing: Council of the European Union close to approving position on extended biometric data-sharing network
The Council of the European Union is close to reaching an agreement on its negotiating position on the 'Prüm II' Regulation, which would extend an existing police biometric data-sharing network to include facial images and offer the possibility for national authorities to open up their databases of "police records" for searches by other member states.
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Statement on 4 Years of GDPR
When the GDPR became applicable on 25 May 2018, it was perceived as a watershed moment. Comments were somewhere between the EU getting serious about privacy and the internet breaking down at midnight. The past four years have shown that a law alone does not change business models that are based on the abuse of personal data and a culture within the privacy profession that is often focusing on covering up non-compliance. After a first moment of shock, large part of the data industry has learned to live with GDPR without actually changing practices. This is mainly done by simply ignoring users’ rights and getting away with it.
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European Commission must uphold privacy, security and free expression by withdrawing new law, say civil society
In May, the European Commission proposed a new law: the CSA Regulation. If passed, this law would turn the internet into a space that is dangerous for everyone’s privacy, security and free expression. EDRi is one of 134 organisations calling instead for tailored, effective, rights-compliant and technically-feasible alternatives to tackle this grave issue.
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Stop data retention in Germany and the European Union
Germany must show true leadership and set a strong precedent in the EU against the use of mass data retention to fight serious crimes. Mass data retention is one of the most privacy-intrusive instruments that treat everybody as criminals by presumption. It is high time that European governments implement rights-respecting and proportionate solutions in police investigations. Read the open letter EDRi and 12 civil society organisations sent to the German ministers of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to urge them to stop the use of data retention practices in crime investigations.
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EDRi-gram, 25 May 2022
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we urge the European Parliament to make good use of the chance that the AI Act offers to regulate harmful border technologies and truly protect people on the move. We also dive deeper in the needy-greedy details of the European Commission's recent proposal for a ‘Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse’ which creates major risks to the privacy, security and integrity of private communications, not just in the EU, but globally.
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Collective complaint against the Technopolice
Today, we have come to a point where the combination of these technologies creates a state of total surveillance in our streets:CCTV everywhere, enormous police databases, facial recognition and automated detection of behavior. In order to end stop this illegal mass surveillance, LQDN is launching a collective complaint against the French Ministry of the Interior. You will find the details of their argument and procedure on plainte.technopolice.fr (in French).
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European Commission wants to eliminate online confidentiality
This might sound attention-seeking, but we really believe to be not far off the mark. It really looks like the European Commission wants to cancel encryption.
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The AI Act: EU’s chance to regulate harmful border technologies
The AI Act will be the first regional mechanism of its kind in the world, but it needs a serious update to meaningfully address the profileration of harmful technologies tested and deployed at Europe’s borders.
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Personal data and competition: Mapping perspectives, identifying challenges and enhancing engagement for competition regulators and civil society
This report seeks to map the attitudes and perspectives of competition regulators and civil society across the world with regard to personal data and competition.
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How a Hollywood star lobbies the EU for more surveillance
The European Union debates a new law that could force platforms to scan all private messages for signs of child abuse. Its most prominent advocate is the actor Ashton Kutcher.
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The voices of human rights defenders affected by the Pegasus spyware must be heard
EDRi and 22 civil society organisations urge the established European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware to ensure that the systematic targetting of human rights defenders with these technologies is fully examined by the Committee, and that the voices of human rights defenders affected are heard.
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