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July 16, 2003

Swiss data protection chief criticizes USA

The head of Switzerland’s data protection commission says the United States’ war on terror is undermining personal privacy. Hanspeter Thür calls for tighter controls on the campaign against terrorism and for more money to safeguard individual rights. According to him, the Bush administration is pursuing a repressive policy with little regard for data protection. The […]

July 2, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 12, 2 July 2003

July 2, 2003

Data protection recommendations on PNR

The European Data Protection Authorities, convened in the European Working Party (Article 29 Data Protection Working Party), have published an opinion on the transfer of EU airline passenger data to the US. The Working Party also published a US Customs document dated 22 May 2003 that refines the US wishes and demands towards PNR data […]

July 2, 2003

Biometrics in EU passports

In a remarkably high-speed procedure, the EU Council plans to oblige all Member States of the Union to introduce chips containing biometric data on their passports within little less than a year. Allegedly, this step is taken to meet a U.S. deadline set on 26 October 2004. After that date, according to a law passed […]

July 2, 2003

Turmoil about voting date for EU Patent directive

A proposal to hasten the plenary vote about the EU Software Patent directive was stopped just in time. The voting date now remains set at the 1st of September. The extra time seems extra important now that the public debate about the implications of this directive has only just taken of. Last Monday, the French […]

July 2, 2003

Analysis: Privacy in the EU draft constitution

The draft European Constitution was presented in May 2003. The proposed treaty contains a section on Fundamental Rights and Citizenship of the Union. The European Charter of Fundamental rights, which was adopted at the Nice summit, in 2000, will be an integral part of the treaty (section II, article 5, paragraph 1). The right of […]

July 2, 2003

German chancellor demands take-down of satirical website

A German comedian was ordered to take down his parody website about the German Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler). The comedian, Joseph Pohl, operated the website for almost 5 years. Two weeks ago, he received an email from the Chancellors press office, accusing him of infringing on their trademark. Even though the site is as clear a […]

July 2, 2003

Finnish plans to lower privacy protection employees

On 26 June, the Finnish Ministry of Labour released a draft new version of the law protecting privacy at the workplace. The proposal would make it legal to read employees’ email under certain circumstances. It also contains new regulations on camera surveillance (allowed as long as a single employee is not singled out) and drug […]

July 2, 2003

2 million DNA-profiles in UK police database

On the 100th anniversary of George Orwell, a UK police database with DNA-profiles of suspects reached the number of 2 million. According to an article in the English daily The Guardian, Home Secretary (minister of internal affairs) David Blunkett said the five-year-old database was well on the way to its target of holding 3 million […]

July 2, 2003

Dutch court orders ban on foreign gambling websites

Last Tuesday, a Dutch court ordered 21 foreign gambling websites to ban Dutch visitors. The sites are located in 10 different countries, from a well-known gambling paradise like Antigua to companies based in Canada and Australia. The case was instigated by the national Dutch lottery (Lotto). This 100% state-owned company became very confident after winning […]

July 2, 2003 · Blogs

Foundation of Turkish digital civil rights group

At the end of this year, Turkey will have its first digital civil rights group. Foundational work started in April 2003. Initiator is Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, the founder and director of Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties (UK). According to Akdeniz, the organisation aims to protect the interests of all honest, law-abiding Turkish Internet users with the aim […]

June 21, 2003

Finnish Big Brother Awards for YTV and Sonera

On 4 June EDRI-member EFFI organised a second annual Big Brother Ceremony. The award in the public sector was given to YTV, a firm that controls public transport in the Helsinki region. The company received the award for its new electronical ticket system that stores individual passenger information, including social security numbers. Anonymous cards were […]