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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EDRi-gram, 24 October 2024
With winter almost on our doorstep, we're warming up for a busy few months in the EU digital rights space. In early November, we'll be paying close attention to the European Parliament hearings of the Commissioner-designates selected by Ursula Von Der Leyen. Earlier this month, the European Commission unveiled its highly anticipated Digital Fairness Fitness Check report. The report is likely to have a major influence on the Commission’s planned Digital Fairness Act proposal, which will affect our digital rights. Let’s unpack this together. Protection of young people online should be achieved through empowerment not exclusion. This is the highlight of our and our members' submission to the European Commission’s call for evidence for the Digital Services ActArticle 28 guidelines for the protection of minors online. This month, we also co-hosted – along with 41 other civil society organisations – the Tech and Society Summit. A first-of-its-kind space when we're inundated with industry-sponsored events, the summit created a bridge between civil society and new policymakers, to achieve accountable, people-focused policies that advance everyone’s digital rights.
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Unpacking digital fairness: What Europe must do now to end the tech industry’s most nefarious tactics
The EU plans to propose a Digital Fairness Act to better protect consumers from deceptive design practices, social media addiction, and pervasive online tracking. We unpack what this means and what the European Commission should do to end Big Tech’s most nefarious tactics.
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Tech and Society Summit: Decision-makers and civil society articulate a digital agenda that centers people, planet and democracy
On 1 October 2024, 41 civil society organisations – including EDRi – co-hosted the Tech and Society Summit. Throughout the day, EU decision-makers, journalists and civil society held discussions, joined panels and participated in activities that fostered dialogue about the intersections of technology, society and the environment.
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Firefox tracks you with “privacy preserving” feature
EDRi member noyb filed a complaint against Mozilla for quietly enabling a supposed “privacy feature” (called Privacy Preserving Attribution) in its Firefox browser. Contrary to its reassuring name, this technology allows Firefox to track user behaviour on websites
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Deported for reporting a crime: the paradox of securitisation policies
The review of the Return Directive, which governs detention and deportation procedures in the EU, should not lead to the criminalisation of undocumented people. Rather, it should uphold their fundamental right to personal data protection by establishing firewalls that allow them to report crimes without fears of being deported.
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EDRi-gram, 9 October 2024
Last week, we gathered with hundreds of EU decision-makers, Members of European Parliament, civil society representatives and journalists at the Tech and Society Summit in Brussels. As one of the 41 co-organisers of the Summit, we were inspired by the visionary ideas in the various panels, discussions and chat – all towards centering people, the planet and democracy in the EU tech agenda. Stay tuned for more highlights and recordings from the day. One of the main takeaway from the Summit was that systems of control and surveillance – which are becoming increasingly central to EU policies – will not make us safer. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Europe’s own borders where technology is being used to dehumanised migrants. Read the blog by Access Now’s Caterina Rodelli who travelled across Greece to see first-hand how this is happening. On a positive note, the infamous “Chat Control” proposal is dead and buried again – for now. And we have the Dutch to thank for this positive development! We have more details for you.
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Rushed EU eID Wallet risks privacy and security: Calls for safeguards are getting ignored in hasty eIDAS implementation
From a visit to the doctor to public transport tickets , the European eID will handle our most sensitive personal data in a wide range of every-day applications. Yet, speed seems more important to the European Commission than a properly functioning eID system that is safe & secure to use.
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Prioritising safety, participation, and community care: A vision for our digital future
Together, we can protect human rights, strengthen democracy, and reshape societal systems. Read about our commitment to prioritising safety, participation, and community care, as part of our Vision for 2024 and beyond.
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Biometric surveillance in the Czech Republic: the Ministry of the Interior is trying to circumvent the Artificial Intelligence Act
EDRi-member Iuridicum Remedium draws attention to the way biometric surveillance at airports should be legalised in the Czech Republic. According to the proposal, virtually anyone could become a person under surveillance. Moreover, surveillance could be extended from airports to other public spaces.
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Surveilling Europe’s edges: when digitalisation means dehumanisation
In May 2024, Access Now’s Caterina Rodelli travelled across Greece to meet with local civil society organisations supporting migrant people and monitoring human rights violations, and to see first-hand how and where surveillance technologies are deployed at Europe’s borders. In the first of a three-part blog series reflecting on what she saw, Caterina explains how, all too often, digitalising borders dehumanises the people trying to cross them.
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Dutch decision puts brakes on Chat Control
This controversial draft EU law has seen so many twists and turns that it’s giving us whiplash. Under renewed pressure from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, some lawmakers had hoped they could finally get enough support for the controversial bill this autumn. But following a vital last-minute decision by the Netherlands, we are safe from “Chat Control” – for now.
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EDRi-gram, 25 September 2024
With summer on its way out, there might be a chill in the air. But there’s none to be found in Brussels and the digital rights world. Last week, we were glued to our screens as the European Commission President Elect, Ursula Von Der Leyen, announced the Commissoners-Designate and what they’ll be in charge of. Now, these Commissioners will go through live-streamed hearings at the European Parliament next month before starting work. We’ll be watching with interest… and maybe popcorn. This week, we’re also concerned about the impact of age verification proposals on fundamental rights and the well-being of children and young people. Spoiler alert: it’s not good. Evidence & lived experiences show these tools are dangerous, discriminatory and unsafe. EDRi and 63 organisations and experts wrote to the European Commission to urge them to halt proposals for using such tools in the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the eIDAS Regulation. Now that we’ve all firmly, albeit sadly, turned off our summer out-of-office messages, it’s also time to catch up on what Google, Meta, X and other tech giants have been up to over the summer, especially with the DSA and Digital Markets Act (DMA) in place.
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