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January 15, 2020 · EDRi-gram

EDRi-gram 18.1, 15 January 2020

We analysed three increasingly common uses of facial recognition: tagging pictures on Facebook, automated border control gates, and police surveillance"

January 15, 2020 · Highlights | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Serbia: Complaints filed against Facebook and Google

January 15, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics

Amazon’s Rekognition shows its true colors

EDRi member Bits of Freedom has been investigating the problems associated with the use of facial recognition by the police in the public space. As part of this investigation they wanted to put this technology to the test themselves. How does facial recognition technology really work? Digital tourism On Dam Square, in the center of […]

January 15, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Equal access to the internet | Online tracking industry / AdTech | Platform regulation | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention | Transparency

Our New Year’s wishes for European Commissioners

EDRi wishes all readers a happy new year 2020! In 2019, we had a number of victories in multiple fields. The European Parliament added necessary safeguards to the proposed Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation to protect fundamental rights against overly broad and disproportionate censorship measures. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled […]

January 15, 2020 · Open letters | Information democracy | Open internet and inclusive technology | Transparency

Copyright: Open letter asking for transparency in implementing guidelines

Today, on 15 January 2020, EDRi joined 41 other human rights and users’ rights organisations to demand increased transparency during the implementation of the EU copyright Directive. Specifically, the open letter asks the European Commission to publish any draft guidelines when available and to include concerns raised by the signing organisations during the stakeholder dialogues […]

January 15, 2020 · Blogs | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

ECtHR demands explanations on Polish intelligence agency surveillance

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has demanded the Polish government to provide an explanation on surveillance by its intelligence agencies. This is a result of complaints filed with the Strasbourg court in late 2017 and early 2018 by activists from EDRi member Panoptykon Foundation and Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights as well as […]

January 15, 2020 · Publications | Privacy and data protection | Alternatives to dominant digital services | Equal access to the internet | Inclusive technologies | Online tracking industry / AdTech

Booklet: #EthicalWebDev – guide for ethical website development and maintenance

We’ve finally published our new guide for ethical website development and maintenance, Ethical Web Dev! Explore the guide here

January 15, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics

Your face rings a bell: Three common uses of facial recognition

Not all applications of facial recognition are created equal. In this third installment, we sift through the hype to analyse three increasingly common uses of facial recognition: tagging pictures on Facebook, automated border control gates, and police surveillance.

January 15, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Indiscriminate data retention considered disproportionate, once again

EDRi’s initial reaction on the press release of the AG Opinion on data retention Today’s Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Advocate General’s Opinions continue the firmly established case-law of the CJEU considering mass collection of individuals communications data incompatible with EU law. The Advocate General reaffirms that blanket retention of telecommunication data […]

January 15, 2020 · Blogs | Information democracy | Open internet and inclusive technology | Transparency

Copyright stakeholder dialogues: Filters can’t understand context

On 16 December 2019, the European Commission held the fourth meeting of the Copyright Directive Article 17 stakeholder dialogues. During the “first phase”, meetings focused on the practices in different industries such as music, games, software, audiovisual and publishing. This meeting was the last of what the Commission called the “second phase”, where meetings were […]

January 14, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Online tracking industry / AdTech

NCC Report: Online advertising industry is out of control

Today, on 14 January 2020, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC), a consumers group active on the field of digital rights, denounces in their report “Out of Control” current practices of the adtech industry, including systematic privacy breaches and unlawful behavioural profiling. The report focuses on the analysis of data traffic from ten popular apps such […]

December 18, 2019 · Highlights | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Austrian government hacking law is unconstitutional

On 11 December 2019, the Austrian Constitutional Court decided that the surveillance law that permits the use of spying software to read encrypted messages violates the fundamental right to respect for private life (article 8 ECHR), the fundamental right to data protection (§ 1 Austrian data protection law) and the constitutionally granted right that prohibits unreasonable searches (Art 9 Austrian bill of rights – Staatsgrundgesetz).