Privacy and data protection
Privacy and data protection are essential for us to live, connect, work, create, organise and more. Governments and companies have long used mass surveillance for control trying to legitimise snooping for health, security or other reasons. The near-total digitisation of our lives has made it easier to control, profile and profit from our attention, data, bodies and behaviours in ways that are very difficult for us to understand and challenge. European data protection standards such as the GDPR are a good step forward but we need more to effectively ensure enforcement and protection against unlawful surveillance practices.
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Your mail, their ads. Your rights?
In the digital space, “postal services” often snoop into your online conversations in order to market services or products according to what they find out from your chats. A law meant to limit this exploitative practice is stalled by the Council of European Union
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Diego Naranjo becomes EDRi’s new Head of Policy
European Digital Rights is happy to announce that – following an open recruitment process – Diego Naranjo will step up from his role as Senior Policy Advisor, and start his work as EDRi’s Head of Policy in September 2019.
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Civil society calls for a proper assessment of data retention
In preparation of a possible proposal for new legislation, the European Commission is conducting informal dialogues with different stakeholders to research about the possibilities of data retention legislation that complies with the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). As part of these […]
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Your family is none of their business
Today’s children have the most complex digital footprint in human history, with their data being collected by private companies and governments alike.
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Von der Leyen: An ambitious agenda for digital rights
On 16 July 2019, the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission with 383 votes, which is only nine votes above the minimum needed. Parts of the Socialists, Liberals, and Greens initially had doubts regarding the candidate. However, her speech in the Plenary before the vote and the agenda […]
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Microsoft Office 365 banned from German schools over privacy concerns
In a bombshell decision, the Data Protection Authority (DPA) of the German Land of Hesse has ruled that schools are banned from using Microsoft’s cloud office product “Office 365”. According to the decision, the platform’s standard settings expose personal information about school pupils and teachers “to possible access by US officials” and are thus incompatible […]
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The first GDPR fines in Romania
The Romanian Data Protection Authority (DPA) has recently announced the first three fines applied in Romania as a result of the enforcement of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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New privacy alliance to be formed in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe
Civil Society advocates from Russia, and Central and Eastern Europe have joined forces to form a new inter-regional NGO to promote privacy in countries bordering the EU.
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EU worries over the possibility of losing wiretapping powers
5G telecoms networks could render obsolete the “lawful interception” techniques that police is traditionally using, unless the European Union and national governments take action. This was revealed in internal EU documents obtained by EDRi member Statewatch, that has published a new analysis explaining the issues and calling for a public debate. “It is unsurprising that […]
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Greece: Complaint filed against breach of EU data protection law
On 30 May 2019, EDRi observer Homo Digitalis filed a complaint to the European Commission against a breach of EU data protection law by Greece. The European Commission registered the complaint under the reference number CHAP(2019)01564 on 6 June 2019, and its services will assess the complaint and provide a reply within 12 months.
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Poland: Banks obliged to explain their credit decisions
Owing to the initiative of the Polish EDRi member Panoptykon, bank clients in Poland will have the right to receive an explanation of the assessment of their creditworthiness. The initiative proposed and fought for amendments in the Polish banking law, and resulted in an even higher standard than the one envisioned in the General Data […]
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EU rushes into e-evidence negotiations without common position
On 6 June 2019, the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) – which gathers all EU Member States Ministers of Justice – asked the European Commission to start international negotiations on cross-border access to electronic evidence in criminal matters (so-called “e-evidence”) in the upcoming months. The Commission should enter into bilateral negotiations with the United […]
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