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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New Belgian data retention law: a European blueprint?
On 21 April 2021, the Belgian Constitutional Court canceled the country’s data retention law, which has allowed every Belgian’s telecom, location and internet metadata to be retained for 12 months, for its potential use in criminal investigations. The Belgian Constitutional Court followed the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) judgment released a few months earlier, which declared that practice of general and indiscriminate retention of personal data illegal (for the third time).
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No biometric surveillance for Italian students during exams
In September 2021 the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) fined Luigi Bocconi University €200 000 for using Respondus, a proctoring software, without sufficiently informing students of the processing of their personal data and, among other violations, for processing their biometric data without a legal basis. Bocconi is a private University based in Milan and during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced Respondus tools to monitor students during remote exams.
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Big brother at the Prague airport. The state refuses to explain how the biometric camera system works
When Václav Mach, collaborator of the Czech digital-legal organization, an EDRi member, Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) and law student at the University of Olomouc, asked the state for more detailed information on the use of smart biometric cameras at Prague's Václav Havel Airport, he obtained just general phrases. "They kept secret what they could. Their non-transparency doesn’t add to their credibility,“ he says in an interview with HlídacíPes.org. The article below is a summary of the more extensive interview, translated from Czech into English by EDRi member IuRe.
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EDRi urges Portugal government to oppose proposed video surveillance law
EDRi member and Reclaim Your Face lead organisation D3 (Defesa Dos Direitos Digitais) are raising awareness of how the Portuguese government’s new proposed video surveillance and facial recognition law – which Ministers are trying to rush through the Parliament - amounts to illiberal biometric mass surveillance. It also endangers the very foundations of democracy on which the Republic of Portugal rests.
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Artificial intelligence – a tool of austerity
This week Human Rights Watch published a much-needed comment on the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation. As governments increasingly resort to AI systems to administer social security and public services more broadly, there is an ever-greater need to analyse the impact on fundamental rights and the broader public interest.
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Facebook deleting facial recognition: Five reasons to take it with a pinch of salt
Voluntary self-regulation from tech giants is superficial and no replacement for actual legislation
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EDRi-gram, 3 November 2021
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we share EDRi's guide to help Members of the European Parliament make strong human rights choices regarding the Digital Services Act amendments prior to the IMCO vote. We also share the unfortunate news of how Europol's unfettered and problematic data-driven model of policing has been given the green light, which will lead to serious risks of discrimination based on race, socio-economic status or class, and nationality.
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Human Rights Groups Submit Complaint to European Ombudsman Calling for Investigation into EU Surveillance Aid
Privacy International (PI), together with 5 other human rights groups, has submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman calling for an investigation into EU surveillance aid to non-EU countries.
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Disinformation and propaganda: It’s all political!
The disinformation and propaganda campaigns in the European Union (EU) are inexplicably tied to the political parties that misuse the tools of mass media communications to spread fear and deceit (Euractiv, 2021). The media exemption currently debated within the scope of the Digital Services Act (DSA) that would prevent digital intermediaries from interfering with content posted by media outlets is an early Christmas present to the disinformation agents, as it would enable them to continue with their propaganda production, fueled by algorithmic distribution.
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MEPs poised to vote blank cheque for Europol using AI tools
This week, MEPs recognised the dangers of certain uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in criminal justice. A strong majority rallied around the landmark AI in criminal matters report by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) committee, which opposes AI that 'predicts' criminal behaviour and calls for a ban on biometric surveillance.
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Digital Services Act: The EDRi guide to 2,297 amendment proposals
Various committees in the European Parliament have tabled such a large number of amendments for the Digital Services Act (DSA) that today, EDRi publishes a guide to support Members of the European Parliament in navigating those that would help create a successful, open, and rights-respecting European digital sphere.
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EDRi-gram, 20 October 2021
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we share the launch of a collection of four scenarios that describe situations involving cross-border access to personal data and explains the necessary safeguards needed in the e-Evidence Proposal to mitigate these fundamental rights harms. We also demonstrate how software embedded in people’s devices can monitor our movements and surveil us, how a ban on surveillance advertising can fix Facebook and a lot more. Also now's your chance to submit your session proposal for the 10th annual Privacy Camp event, happening on January 25, 2022!
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