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February 26, 2003

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 […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

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 […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Criticism gone from EP report on safer internet plan

In a remarkable change of heart, rapporteur Bill Newton Dunn removed all criticism from his draft report on the Safer Internet Action Plan (EU Document Number COD/2002/0071). In stead of the original recommendation to discontinue the program because of its complete in-effectiveness, Mr. Newton Dunn (British Liberal) now pleads for an extension of the program. […]

February 26, 2003

Bulgarian Big Brother Award for Interior Affairs

In Bulgaria, a Big Brother Award was awarded to the Ministry of Interior Affairs for the double achievement of a proposal to wiretap all internet traffic and the censorship of a satirical homepage. The draft new Telecommunications Law would have obliged internet service providers to buy wiretapping equipment that would have given police live access […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 2, 12 February 2003

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Freedom of expression online

Internet censorship in Switzerland

In Switzerland, internet censorship is gaining ground. 2 recent events demonstrate this development. Last December, the examining magistrate of the canton Vaud issued a command to many Swiss internet service providers (ISPs), to block access to 3 websites. The websites, all hosted in the USA, contain strong criticism of a.o. the Swiss courts and are […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Freedom of expression online

E-commerce directive transposition raises serious privacy and free speech concerns in France

France has started the process of implementing the European Directive on Electronic Commerce. The draft text of the Digital Economy Law (“Loi relative à l’économie numérique” or LEN in French) deals with ISP liability, electronic contracts and unsolicited commercial emails, cryptography, cybercrime, and satellite systems. Among them, the most controversial provisions are those concerning cryptography, […]

February 12, 2003 · Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Critical draft report on Safer Internet Plan

The EU Safer Internet Action Plan, than ran from 1999 to 2002, did not deliver very impressive results, to put it mildly. Rapporteur Bill Newton Dunn (UK Liberal Democrat) from the Parliamentary Committee on Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) wrote a slashing draft report about the request to extend the plan […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Freedom of expression online

EUCD implementation stalled in Finland

Last week, the Finnish parliament returned the national copyright law proposal back to the ministry that originally drafted it. Electronic Frontier Finland heavily criticized the anti-circumvention provisions and other controversial issues of the proposal. After a parliamentary hearing on the 31st of January, the chair of the hearing committee announced it was impossible to continue […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Freedom of expression online

Finnish companies oppose law to censor internet

A coalition of Finnish telecom and media companies has joined the fight against proposed government legislation to make owners of message boards liable for all content, similar to print media. Additionally, Finnish government wants access to historical data to trace anonymous postings. The law therefore requires publishers and ISPs website to log practically all Internet […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Microsoft Passport does not comply with European privacy rules

Microsoft has agreed to change its Passport authentication system, after the publication on 29 January of a very critical review by the united EU privacy commissioners. Besides the Microsoft .NET Passport system, the commissioners, united in the so-called Article 29 Working Party, also examined the Liberty Alliance Project. The review concludes with general guidelines for […]

February 12, 2003

UK parliamentary inquiry rejects data retention

In the UK, a parliamentary inquiry resulted in a firm rejection of governmental plans for general data retention. In one piece of proposed legislation Government expected phone companies, mobile operators and Internet service providers to voluntarily keep logging data for a period of up to 12 months. These data would reveal who has been calling […]