May 31, 2017 · Blogs

UK government pushes for companies to weaken encryption

The terrorist attack in Manchester on 22 May has led to a relaunch of the encryption debate in the UK. In December 2016, the UK parliament passed the Investigatory Powers Act. This wide-ranging surveillance law gives government ministers the power to issue Technical Capability Notices (TCNs), which can force companies to modify their products.These powers could […]

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March 29, 2006

Update on French EUCD Transposition

The DADVSI draft law (French EUCD Transposition) made its first step on 21 March, with 286 votes in favour and 193 votes against. In an unusually crowded National Assembly, 501 out of the 577 Members of the Parliament took part in the vote. All the votes in favour came from representatives of the Conservative government […]

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March 29, 2006

Damages on online defamatory statements in UK

Michael Keith Smith, a former parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party has received £10,000 in damages in a defamation case occurred on the internet Smith was a participant in a discussion on the Iraq war held on a discussion board run by Yahoo!. Tracy Williams, another participant in the discussion, posted under pseudonym series […]

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December 4, 2019 · Blogs | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

Serbia: Unlawful facial recognition video surveillance in Belgrade

On 3 December 2019, EDRi member SHARE Foundation, together with two other organisations, published a policy brief concerning a new “smart video-surveillance system” in Belgrade. The brief highlights that the impact assessment of video surveillance on human rights, conducted by the Serbian Ministry of Interior did not meet the legal requirements, and the installation of […]

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March 28, 2007

ENDitorial – Are Transatlantic Data Protected?

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) More questions than answers were produced by a full day of discussions, 26 March 2007, on Passenger Name Records (PNR), including a public seminar by the European Parliament LIBE committee on transfers of personal data to the U.S. (PNR, SWIFT, and “Safe Harbour”), as well as a […]

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March 26, 2008

The Swedish Government decided to take measures against filesharers

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Although initially the Swedish Government promised not to hunt down young people for filesharing, on 14 March 2008, it made a proposal that will allow courts to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to give up IP addresses used for illegal filesharing to the owners of the fileshared […]

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October 20, 2010

French DNS management must respect constitutional freedoms

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Französische DNS-Verwaltung muss verfassungsmäßige Freiheiten respektieren | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2276] In a ruling issued on 6 October 2010, the French Constitutional Council affirmed the constitutional value of domain names. According to this decision, which applies to the whole French DNS, a domain name attribution, renewal, transfer or cancellation process must […]

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September 21, 2011

New rules on term of protection of music recordings

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Neue Schutzfristen für Tonaufnahmen | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.18_Neue_Schutzfristen_fuer_Tonaufnahmen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20111004] On 12 September 2011, the Council adopted, by a qualified majority, a Directive that extends the term of protection of the rights of performers and phonogram producers on music recordings from 50 to 70 years. According to the Council press release, the […]

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April 9, 2014 · Blogs

ECJ: Data retention directive contravenes European law

On 8 April, the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU legislation on mass surveillance contravenes European law. The case was brought before the Court by EDRi member Digital Rights Ireland, together with the Austrian Working Group on Data Retention. While it will take some time to get a clear view of what is […]

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September 21, 2011

Freedom not Fear: High time for European (digital) civil rights

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Freiheit statt Angst: Hochsaison für (digitale) Bürgerrechte in Europa | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.18_Freiheit_statt_Angst_Hochsaison_fuer_digitale_Buergerrechte_in_Europa?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20111004] European policy making has long been blind to the digital environment, ignoring the potentials of the Internet and the positive impact of the free flow of information in society. Over the last 10 years, an increasing number […]

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April 9, 2008

PNR Data infringes human rights

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The German Working Group on Data Retention expanded its activities beyond the data retention issues, by publishing two applications to the European Court of Justice by the European Parliament contesting the transfer of PNR data to the US. The documents explain why the collection of air passenger […]

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June 3, 2015 · Blogs

EU Commission set to re-brand the failed CleanIT project

Every once in a while, the European Commission launches talks with the Internet industry to encourage companies to take voluntary actions in response to a very diverse range of possibly illegal or unwanted online activity. Past initiatives have not been hugely successful, and they have frequently raised concerns regarding their vagueness, their lack of transparency […]

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