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.
Filter resources
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NGOs urge ICANN to safeguard privacy
More than 50 consumer and civil liberties organisations from around the world have written to ICANN to urge the organisation to limit the use and scope of the WHOIS database to its original purpose – the resolution of technical network issues – and to establish strong privacy protections based on internationally accepted privacy standards. The […]
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Big Brother Awards presented across Europe
Privacy and civil liberty activists across Europe have presented their Big Brother Awards to governments, companies and persons that have excelled in violating the right to privacy. In a weeks period Award ceremonies were held in Germany (24 October), Spain (25 October), Austria (26 October) and Switzerland (1 November). In Germany prices went to German […]
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State take-over of top-level domain in Ukraine
The government of Ukraine is trying to take-over the national .ua top-level domain. Via a new act on the administration of the .ua domain, adopted on 22 July 2003, the new enterprise Ukrainian Network Information Centre was established and made responsible. The act was apparently adopted after complaints in the media by government officials about […]
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European campaign for safe e-voting
A coalition of technical, legal and political experts launched a campaign on 4 November to ensure that electronic voting can be trusted by voters and politicians across Europe. Voters and candidates must be able to feel certain that voting intentions are accurately recorded. If any doubts do arise then all stake-holders must be able to […]
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New telecommunication law in Germany
On 15 October the German Federal Government adopted a draft new telecommunication act. The draft aims, inter alia, at implementing the European Directive on privacy and electronic communications (2002/58/EC), but will not introduce the spam-ban described in Article 13 of the Directive. In Germany spam will be banned through an update of the Act against […]
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Lawsuit about website French trade union
On Monday 3 November, in intermediary proceedings against not-for-profit provider RAS in a Paris court, two telemarketing companies demanded the immediate take-down of the website of the radical trade union SUD PTT. The lawsuit was brought against the ISP and the trade union by the companies Ceritex and Mediatel. According to their complaint, some remarks […]
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First decision against spam in Poland
The Polish agency for Competition and Consumer Protection recently for the first time condoned a spammer. According to the agency, the Firm Edukacyjna Impuls Plus from the city of Grudziadz had violated the Provision of Electronic Services Bill by sending unsolicited commercial mail. The businessman was ordered to stop such actions and to publish a […]
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'Mandatory data retention is unlawful'
A legal opinion commissioned by EDRI-member Privacy International and provided by the law firm Covington & Burling concludes that mandatory data retention plans in the EU are unlawful. The opinion, which relates to an EU framework directive on the retention of communications data, has profound ramifications for ten EU states that have implemented, or are […]
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EU health chip
The European Union has taken steps towards the creation of an EU-wide health identity card. By 2008 there will be a new card with a microchip that can store a range of biometric and personal data. Approved by Union ministers in Luxembourg the plastic disk will slide into the credit-card pouch of a wallet or […]
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Dutch Big Brother Award for Minister of Justice
The Dutch Big Brother Awards were presented in front of a 300 person audience in Amsterdam on the 11th of October. With the Awards the person, company, governmental institution and initiative are rewarded for damaging the privacy of citizens in 2003 the most. The 4 winners of 2003 are: minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner; […]
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White paper on notice and take-down
The RightsWatch Project, a research project funded under the European Commission’s Information Society Technology programme, produced a white paper on notice and take-down of websites. During a 2 year project RightsWatch tried to develop consensus between providers, right holders and internet users about self-regulatory notice and takedown (NTD) procedures. The attempts miserably failed, since self-regulation […]
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Report of WSIS prepcom 3
From 15 to 26 September 2003 governments and civil society assembled in Geneva for the third preparatory conference for the World Summit on the Information Society. The two weeks ended with many key issues still unresolved, and with a last-minute proposal to reconvene for an extra session from 10 to 14 November. EDRI members IRIS […]
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