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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Everyone wants to encourage encryption, except for one minister
The Department of Justice and Security in the Netherlands seems to be holding on to the idea that it is possible to weaken encryption "just a little". Simultaneously, the parliament and a monster alliance of organizations tells the minister over and over again: it's impossible. EDRi's member Bits of Freedom sheds some light on the on-going debate on the question.
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Why the electronic green vaccination certificate creates new problems instead of solving them
The National Council in Austria passed a legal basis for the electronic immunity certificate project within two days, skipping any kind of review procedure. The digital passes are not a ticket to a normal life, vaccination is. So, special attention should be paid to maintaining the trust of people and the voluntary nature of vaccination, ensuring that people's rights to privacy and freedom of choice are respected. EDRi's member epicenter.works explains what are the concerns with the deployment of green certificates and suggests alternatives to this project.
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European Commission must ban biometric mass surveillance practices, say 56 civil society groups
On 1 April, a coalition of 56 human rights, digital rights and social justice organisations sent a letter to European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, ahead of the long-awaited proposal for new EU laws on artificial intelligence. The coalition is calling on the Commissioner to prohibit uses of biometrics that enable mass surveillance or other dangerous and harmful uses of AI.
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The Need for a Council of Europe Recommendation on Combatting SLAPPs
104 civil society organisations call on the Council of Europe (CoE) to act urgently on the growing threat of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
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Coalition of human rights and journalist organisations express concerns for free speech
On 25 March, 61 human rights and journalist organisations sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliament, urging them to vote against the proposed Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online.
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Stop Spying on Asylum Seekers!
How would you feel if the government was literally able to cut off your access to your cash, because your buying habits were deemed suspicious? That's the reality for many UK based asylum seekers, spied on by the Home Office through their 'Aspen Card', the debit payment card they rely on for their basic subsistence and survival. Join our member Privacy International in their efforts to stop the government's harmful practices of spying on some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
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No faces left to hack: #ReclaimYourFace Now!
We cannot let power-hungry and profit-orientated technologies manipulate our future, take away our dignity and treat us like walking, breathing barcodes. We have the right to exercise our autonomy and self-determination free from abusive practices undermining our agency. The Reclaim Your Face’s ECI empowers Europeans to move and shape the public debate on the use of these AI-powered biometric technologies. The EU has the chance to show that people sit at the center of its values, by taking the lead to ban biometric mass surveillance that endangers our freedoms, democracies and futures.
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Campaign against surveillance: Nobody will tell you when they will follow you
The rapid growth of new technologies has been of “benefit” to secret services. However, it seems that the law has lacked behind showing its inability to reflect the new methods of surveillance used by secret services around the world. EDRi's member Panoptykon Foundation has launched a campaign in Poland to show the problem of unscrutinised powers of secret services.
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The EU should regulate AI on the basis of rights, not risks
EDRi's member Access Now explains why the upcoming legislative proposal on AI should be a rights-based law, like the GDPR. The European Commission must not compromise our rights by substituting a mere risk mitigation exercise by the very actors with a vested interest in rolling out this technology.
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Czech Big Brother Awards awards worst privacy culprits
EDRi's member IuRe has recognised the most intrusive authorities, companies and technologies for the sixteenth time in a row at the Big Brother Awards. This year's awards were closely linked to the pandemic. Many nominations emerged as a part of the fight against COVID-19, limiting privacy in order to limit the spread of the virus.
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EDRi challenges expansion of police surveillance via Prüm
The Prüm framework permits police forces of EU Member States to exchange DNA files, fingerprints, vehicle data via a decentralised system. The European Commission and the Council are pushing for a “Next Generation Prüm” in which facial images, firearms data, driving licenses, extracts of police records, data about third-country nationals and many additional types of data could be shared via the system.
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Trust is a two-way street: the UK’s digital identity framework
Trust is a two-way street, and while the British government’s digital identity trust framework definitely makes steps in the right direction, those efforts need to be accompanied by a commitment to transparency and integrity, says EDRi's member Open Rights Group in response to the government's policy paper on UK’s digital identity and attributes trust framework.
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