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October 8, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 19, 8 October 2003

October 8, 2003

Dutch compulsory identification above 14 years

Last week in the Netherlands a legal proposal became public to introduce compulsory identification for all persons from the age of fourteen. People unable to immediately show a valid passport, drivers license or (cheaper) identity-card risk a fine with a maximum of 2.250 Euro. Every police-officer including military police, any extra-ordinary law enforcement agent and […]

October 8, 2003

EU proposal on biometrics in visa and passports

The European Commission is proposing to integrate biometric identifiers into visas and residence permits for third country nationals. Later this year proposals will follow for biometrics in passports of EU citizens, likely to be similar to the visa proposal. The Commission and member states want to store two types of biometric data into a contactless […]

October 8, 2003 · Blogs

50% of Slovakian websites to be wiped

The French E-zine Transfert.net reports that the Slovakian domain registry Euroweb is threatening to wipe more than 40.000 domain-names ending on .sk, eliminating half of the Slovakian web-presence. Slovakian domain owners have been given one month extra, until 3 November, to renew their registration under new commercial conditions. The first deadline expired on 1 October, […]

October 8, 2003

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, […]

October 8, 2003

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 […]

October 8, 2003

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 […]

October 8, 2003

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 […]

October 8, 2003

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. […]

September 25, 2003

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 […]

September 25, 2003

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 […]

September 25, 2003

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 […]