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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Agreement on cyber-attacks harms freedom of expression
The Justice ministers of the EU countries (by means of the Council of the European Union) have agreed on a decision to harmonize the criminal code in EU countries regarding attacks on information systems. The ministers agree that “there is evidence of attacks against information systems, in particular as a result of the threat from […]
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Petition against copyright law in Italy
On 9 March the Italian Associazione Software Libero opened an on-line petition against the proposed implementation of the European Copyright Directive. The petition is an open letter to the Culture Committee of the Lower House, inviting them to reconsider their almost unanimous approval of the copyright law on 25 February 2003. Like in most other […]
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Finland changes policy on software patents
Anticipating the new EU Directive on Patents, the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (PRH) decided to accept patents on software. Before, the Fins were a lot stricter than the European Patent Office. The reason for the change in policy is mind-boggling. Because the European Parliament seems to propose much more unpermissive rules […]
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Limiting the storage of traffic data
The European data commissioners (through the Article 29 working group) have pleaded for a maximum storage period of half a year for traffic data that telecommunication companies store for billing purposes. With the opinion paper the working group tries to limit the duration and scope of traffic data storage. “Traffic data should be kept for […]
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Update on anti-spam legislation
In the previous EDRI-gram 6 EU-countries were mentioned that already have a spam-ban, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Greece, Italy and Austria, plus Hungary and Norway in Europe-at-large. We can now add France, Romania and Poland to this list. French E-Commerce Directive (approved 26.02.2003 in the Lower House) http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/ta/ta0089-2.pdf Polish E-commerce Directive (effective 10.03.2003) http://www.giodo.gov.pl/English/ust_podpis_el.htm Romanian E-commerce […]
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Call for public views on video-surveillance
The European data protection commissioners, united in the Article 29 Working Party, invite the public to respond to a position paper about videosurveillance. The paper gives an interesting overview of the differences in legislation and measures adopted in the different member states since the transposition of the Privacy Directive (95/46/EC). The Commissioners are specifically worried […]
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Censoring the internet: the situation in Turkey
‘Turkey, showing the symptoms of a developing country, has not yet established the jurisprudence necessary for the Internet. The existing Turkish laws, especially the Press Law, are naively applied to alleged lawbreakers on the Internet, resulting in ludicrous outcomes.’ Paper about internet censorship in Turkey by Kemal Altintas, Tolga Aydin and Varol Akman published 10 […]
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Data-retention scandal in Ireland
Ireland has had a secret data retention regime for almost a year, after the Cabinet confidentially instructed telecommunications operators to store traffic information about every phone, fax and mobile call for at least three years. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner Joe Meade revealed this last monday at a forum on data retention. Telcos even used […]
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Dutch interception secrecy
The quantity of police interceptions of telecommunication in the Netherlands is higher than anywhere else in the world, according to the few available official statistics. Government however, tries to maintain secrecy about the exact numbers and the technical specifications of the equipment. Last week, a Freedom-of-Information request by EDRi-member Bits of Freedom for statistics covering […]
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USA gets direct access to European passenger data
From 5 March onwards, USA officials will have direct electronic access to databases with EU passenger data. On 19 February, U.S. Deputy Customs Commissioner Douglas Browning and officials of the European Commission agreed to give the custom officials direct access to the personal data of passengers flying to, from and through the United States. These […]
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Belgium introduces electronic passport
Ignoring criticism from the national privacy authority, Belgian parliament approved of the introduction of an electronic passport. The new chipcard will be tested in 11 municipalities. If the pilot succeeds, all inhabitants of Belgium will have an electronic ID within 5 years. The new credit-card sized passport shows regular data like name, date of birth […]
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ID requirements in Europe
Only a few EU-member states currently have ID-requirements. Privacy-authorities and civil rights groups alike doubt the practical effects and warn against highly arbitrary checks. Belgium, France and Spain, where ID-requirements have been in place for a long time, have bad track-records of police discrimination. Belgium currently has the strictest legislation, requiring everybody age 15 and […]
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