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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GDPRexplained Campaign: the new regulation is here to protect our rights
Our GDPR Explained campaign aims at educating individuals and organisations about the new rights granted to us and the changes to be made when dealing with personal data. We have put together answers to many important questions we have received and built a FAQ for anyone to access.
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A Digestible Guide to Individual’s Rights under GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation went into effect on May 25th and Privacy Policy updates have been flooding inboxes. GDPR enhances everyone’s rights, regardless of nationality, gender, economic status and so on. Unfortunately, the majority of individuals know very little about these rights and GDPR at large.
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The four year battle for the protection of your data
We were up against the combined resources of the largest multinational corporations and data-hungry governments, but we also had two things in our favor: the rapporteur Jan Philipp Albrecht and his team were adamant about safeguarding civil rights, and in 2013 the Snowden-revelations made politicians more keen on doing the same. Against all odds, we prevailed!
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Press Release: GDPR: A new philosophy of respect
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going in effect tomorrow, on 25 May 2018, strengthening and harmonising individuals rights in regards to personal data. A much celebrated success for all privacy advocates, GDPR is more than just a law.
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Looking back at EDRi’s victories in 2017
Our key successes of 2017 were the vote in a European Parliament Committee rejecting upload filters in the Copyright Directive proposal, EU Parliament's plenary vote supporting ePrivacy, and the Council of Europe welcoming of EDRi recommendations on the issue of cross-border access to data by law enforcement.
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BBA Germany 2018: Spying on employees, refugees, citizens…
The annual German Big Brother Awards gala was held by EDRi member Digitalcourage in Bielefeld on 20 April 2018.
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New Dutch law for intelligence services challenged in court
On 21 March 2018, the Dutch voted in an advisory referendum on the new Intelligence and Security Services Act. A majority of Dutch citizens voted against the law in its current form – a clear signal that the law is in urgent need of reconsideration. EDRi member Bits of Freedom has been fighting against important parts of this law since the first draft in 2015, so the outcome of the referendum comes as a positive news.
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Bavarians protest against vastly extended police powers
A large anti-surveillance rally took place in Munich on 10 May 2018. 30 000 protesters showed their dismay about the Bavarian plans to reform the law on the tasks of the state’s police. Even the organisers were surprised by the scale of the demonstration – they had expected fewer than 10 000 people.
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A guide to EDRi at RightsCon 2018
This year, three members of our Brussels office are attending RghtsCon in Toronto: Executive Director Joe McNamee, Senior Policy Adviser Maryant Fernández Pérez and Policy Intern Gemma Shields. The conference days are full of panels, meetings, informal get-togethers and fun activities. Here is our guide to the sessions moderated or attended by EDRi staff. Wednesday […]
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Facebook: Unanswered questions
On 9 April 2018, EDRi received an invitation from Facebook to attend a meeting to the loss of trust in Facebook, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
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New EU proposals foresee mandatory biometrics in national ID cards
The European Commission has proposed a host of new measures aimed at “denying terrorists the means to act” which include the mandatory inclusion of two biometrics – fingerprints and a facial image – in all ID cards and residence documents for European Union citizens and their family members issued by Member States.
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Are GDPR certification schemes the next data transfer disaster?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) encourages the establishment of data protection certification mechanisms, “in particular at [EU] level” (Art. 42(1)). But the GDPR also envisages various types of national schemes, and allows for the approval (“accreditation”) of schemes that are only very indirectly linked to the national data protection authority.
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