Privacy and confidentiality
Privacy is a crucial element of our personal security, enabling free speech and democratic participation. The absolute and fundamental human right to privacy guarantees people respect for their private life and freedom from snooping and unlawful interference. It gives everyone the freedom to be themselves, to express and develop their opinions and ideas with dignity, and to practice their religion, as well as giving journalists and civil society the ability to report on violations of rights by states or businesses. Without sufficient privacy, people’s private interactions are exposed, which can be used to target or discriminate against them.
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The privacy movement and dissent: Art
This is the third 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 […]
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Battle lines drawn between citizens and internet giants in EU e-Privacy Regulation
On 2 October, the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) and the Industry Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) voted on the e-Privacy Regulation, the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) voted on 28 September. These votes will feed into the final decision to be taken by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice […]
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European Parliament Consumer Protection Committee chooses Google ahead of citizens – again
On 28 September, the European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) adopted its Opinion on the proposed e-Privacy Regulation. Just as it did when reviewing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is fighting hard to minimise the privacy and security of the European citizens it is meant to defend.
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Leaked document: Does the EU Commission really plan to tackle illegal content online?
On 14 September, Politico published a leaked draft of the European Commission’s Communication “Tackling Illegal Content Online”. The Communication contains “guidelines” to tackle illegal content, while remaining coy in key areas. It is expected to be officially published on 28 September.
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EDRi delivers paper on encryption workarounds and human rights
On 12 September, EDRi published the position paper “Encryption Workarounds: a digital rights perspective”. It was published in response to the European Commission’s expert consultation exercise around the Encryption Workarounds paper by Orin Kerr and Bruce Schneier.
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Cross-border access to data has to respect human rights principles
The Council of Europe started preparing an additional protocol to the Cybercrime Convention – a new tool for law enforcement authorities (LEAs) to have access to data in the context of criminal investigations. Ahead of the first meeting of the Drafting Group, EDRi coordinated a civil society submission, signed by 14 organisations from around the […]
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Human Rights Court sets limits on right to monitor employees
On 5 September 2017, the Grand Chamber of the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on the Bărbulescu v. Romania case. It found that there was a breach of the right to family life and correspondence (Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights), as claimed by Mr Bărbulescu. Mr Bărbulescu was fired […]
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EDRi.org: Best of 2016
One of EDRi's goals for 2016 was to reach a wider audience and raise awareness of the digital rights issues. As it turns out, with the help of our members and supporters, we were successful! Our blogposts and articles were read widely, and our most popular publication was downloaded more than 23 000 times. Here is a selection of the most read articles.
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Booklet: Your guide to Digital Defenders vs. Data Intruders – Privacy for kids!
The Internet. It's cool, fast and global! But it's also complicated, sometimes. Sometimes it can be difficult to see the risks - where our private stuff online can be read and used by others.
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The lobby-tomy 6: Not in my backyard
Something you’ll hear in policy debates on the environment: windmills are a great idea and obviously good for the environment, but we don’t want them in our backyard. This argument doesn’t just apply to the debate on the environment, but apparently also in the debate on privacy protection. Representatives from industry speak convincingly about what […]
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Please sue us
Each of the Member States of the European Union is required to incorporate European directives into national legislation. If a Member State does not obey this obligation, the European Commission can sue this country in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). But what actions can a country take if such directives force […]
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Dutch dragnet surveillance bill leaked
On 29 April, the final text for the Dutch dragnet surveillance bill was leaked. It turns out that Minister of the Dutch Interior Ronald Plasterk is still bent on granting the secret services the power to carry out bulk interception of innocent citizens’ communications.
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