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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French DPA against tracking of passenger movements
The French Data Protection Authority, the CNIL, considers the current use of chip-cards for public transport a serious danger for privacy. The cards combine identity-data with travel data like point of entrance to the subway, date and time, and even exact route in case the passenger switches route halfway. In its recommendation of 16 September, […]
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Protest against super database in Romania
Human rights experts in Romania issued harsh criticism at the government resolution adopted last week to set up an Integrated Information System (SII), as they consider it as extremely dense, imprecise and giving room to arbitrary interpretation. The SII is a database that will centralise the information held by all public institutions regarding natural and […]
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UK politicians call for more anti-spam measures
In the UK an influential group of Members of Parliament has called for more anti-spam measures. In a report published last Monday, the MPs ask for greater enforcement powers for the government watchdog responsible for tackling spam, the information commissioner. The All Parliament Internet Group is also urging the Department of Trade and Industry to […]
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Swiss jurisprudence about hyperlinks and virus tools
The appeal court of Zurich (Obergericht) recently published an interesting ruling about hyperlinks. Linking to an anti-racism page which contains links to hate sites does not breach Swiss anti-racism law. A former professor of computer science was accused of racism by setting a link to the site www.stop-the-hate.org. Both in first instance in 2000 and […]
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UK car-tracking plans
The UK police are coming to the end of their second phase trials on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and preparing to roll out the technology nationwide next summer. ANPR tracks cars using the omnipresent CCTV systems and specialised fixed and mobile cameras. It can use government databases to detect untaxed, unroadworthy and uninsured vehicles. […]
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English ISPs condemn 1 year data retention
Industry and human rights campaigners have condemned new data retention proposals from the UK’s Home Office (Ministry of Internal Affairs). The draft Statutory Instruments (secondary legislation) would approve ‘voluntary’ retention by Internet Service Providers, but preserve the power of the Home Secretary to impose a compulsory code. Data on customers would be retained for up […]
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First ruling under new UK anti-spam legislation
On 11 December 2003 new anti-spam legislation in the UK will come into force, implementing the European Directive on privacy in the telecommunications sector (2002/58/EC). In the UK, spammers risk a fine of 7.196 EUR (5.000 GBP) from a magistrates court or even an unlimited penalty from a jury. Though a criminal offence, spammers in […]
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Reporters sans frontieres banned from WSIS
Reporters Sans Frontieres, a non-governmental organisation fighting for freedom of the press, was banned from further participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). According to a letter from the Executive Director of the Summit, RSF was excluded for ‘administrative reasons’. The exclusion is in fact a direct result of a protest RSF […]
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Verisign violates privacy millions of internet users
Verisign, the US based registrar of the .com and .net top level domain, refuses to stop redirecting internet users to its own search engine Site Finder. Since 15 September everybody who makes a mistake in typing a web address is re-directed to their website, instead of just getting an error message. In spite of massive […]
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Legal victory for German anonymiser AN.ON
On 15 September the Frankfurt District Court confirmed an earlier partial ruling in favour of the German web anonymiser AN.ON. According to this ruling, there was no legal ground for the request by the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation to record data about visitors to a specific website (see EDRI-gram 16 and 17). The […]
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New directive on privacy in the workplace
The European Commission is planning a new Directive on privacy in the workplace, in 2004 or 2005. After two consultations with the social partners, in August 2001 and October 2002, the Commission is convinced of the necessity of such a new directive. 3 main grounds for the new legislatory framework are: technological advances that increasingly […]
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Confusion about UK ID-card plans
Confusion still reigns within the UK government over plans for a national ID card. Home Secretary David Blunkett (the Minister of Internal Affairs) has continued to push his scheme despite opposition from Cabinet colleagues. Though it is unclear whether carrying a card would be mandatory, Blunkett said at the very least no-one should be able […]
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