July 15, 2009

EU Commissioner: Current business models encourage illegal file-sharing

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [EU-Kommissarin: bestehende Geschäftsmodelle ermuntern illegales illegales File-Sharen | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1468] On 9 July, during the Ludwig Erhard Lecture 2009 Lisbon Council in Brussels, Viviane Reding, EU telecommunications commissioner, while presenting the proposed strategy for a future digital European society, expressed the idea that present business models lead to the […]

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May 8, 2013 · Blogs

Greek justice to rule on blocking sites by ISPs

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Griechenland: Justiz muss über Netzsperren durch ISPs entscheiden | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.9_Griechenland_Justiz_muss_ueber_Netzsperren_durch_ISPs_entscheiden?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130508] AEPI, the Greek Society for the Protection of Intellectual Property, has filed an action in court to have several major torrent sites, among which KickAssTorrents, isoHunt, 1337x and H33T, blocked by ISPs, according to a report from Torrentfreak. […]

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July 4, 2019 · Blogs | Information democracy | Online tracking industry / AdTech | Profiling practices

Real Time Bidding: The auction for your attention

The digitalisation of marketing has introduced novel industry practices and business models. Some of these new systems have developed into crucial threats to people’s freedoms. A particularly alarming one is Real Time Bidding (RTB). When you visit a website, you often encounter content published by the website’s owner/author, and external ads. Since a certain type […]

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March 9, 2016 · Blogs

ENDitorial: PNR – political finger-pointing, no viable legislation

The EU Passenger Name Record Directive (or ‘PNR Directive’) would require the storage of travel data for airline passengers, ostensibly for law enforcement purposes. The specialist European Parliament committee responsible for the proposal rejected it in 2013 but adopted the proposal in 2015, following the terrorist attacks. The European Parliament recently decided not to schedule […]

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March 23, 2016 · Blogs

Lots to like in Advocate General’s opinion on free WiFi & copyright

Last week, Advocate General Szpunar published his opinion in the McFadden-case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The facts of the case In 2010, Berlin businessman Tobias McFadden was offering free, non-password protected WiFi to his customers. Sony Music claimed that the network was being used to infringe their copyrighted material, […]

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March 23, 2016 · Blogs

Loopholes creeping into the Italian proposal on net neutrality

The Italian legislative proposal on net neutrality is currently being discussed by the Italian Parliament. Notwithstanding general provisions on the equal treatment of traffic for Internet access services, its amended text contains loopholes and provisions that raise concerns. The text, now containing references to EU Regulation 2120/2015 on net neutrality (and mobile roaming), generally fails […]

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February 2, 2006

A CD should work on any device, says French court

Two French companies, Warner Music France and the FNAC, were condemned on 10 January by the Paris District Court to pay fines and damages of 5.000 and 59,50 euros respectively, to the consumer protection association UFC – Que Choisir and to a consumer complaining for not having been able to read a Phil Collins CD […]

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January 23, 2023 · Blogs | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics

Remote biometric identification: a technical & legal guide

Lawmakers are more aware than ever of the risks posed by automated surveillance systems which track our faces, bodies and movements across time and place. In the EU's AI Act, facial and other biometric systems which can identify people at scale are referred to as 'Remote Biometric Identification', or RBI. But what exactly is RBI, and how can you tell the difference between an acceptable and unacceptable use of a biometric system?

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May 13, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Google: seizing a crisis to legitimise mass surveillance?

Even in times of Corona, Google follows you wherever you go. The company collects and processes all our location data en masse and can thus graph how well we adhere to the imposed measures.

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June 24, 2020 · On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Massive political data leak in Malta

After a massive leak of the voter’s list showing the voting preferences, addresses, phones and dates of birth of a majority of the Maltese population, EDRi member noyb.eu will assist the Daphne Foundation and Repubblika in their class action and file complaints about the data breach in various EU Member States.

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February 5, 2014 · Blogs

The promise of democracy – digital rights groups reprogram European elections

A project launched today will give voters an innovative new way  to hold the European Parliament to account.However, nothing is for free – as a trade-off citizens must make a promise of their own – to vote in May’s European Parliament elections. The Wepromise.eu project proposes a “Charter of Digital Rights“. Candidates promise to uphold […]

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February 26, 2014 · Blogs

German ministers and Wikileaks on the NSA surveillance list

As if what has been revealed until now were not enough, after being ordered by President Barack Obama to stop spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, it appears that NSA has decided to extend its spying activities to other German government officials. “We have had the order not to miss out on any information now that […]

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