June 4, 2014 · Blogs

Citizens demonstrate against data retention in Switzerland

On 31 May 2014, several hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Swiss parliament in Berne to protest against mass surveillance by means of the so-called “data retention” of communications metadata. A legislative proposal that would significantly expand state powers of surveillance has already been approved by the Council of States (the smaller chamber of […]

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July 12, 2016 · Blogs

Privacy Shield: Privacy sham

Today, on 12 July 2016, the European Commission adopted the so-called “Privacy Shield”, a special arrangement that allows the transfer of personal data from the EU to the United States. The Privacy Shield replaces the former Safe Habor agreement, which used to serve the same purpose, before being annulled by the European Court of Justice […]

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June 4, 2008

Dutch Parliament lowers data retention term to 12 months

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The Dutch Parliament has lowered the data retention term in its implementation of the Data Retention directive to 12 months. The law has still to pass the Dutch Senate, which has been more critical of data retention in the last four years. A lot is still unclear […]

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July 12, 2016 · Blogs

UEFA: 1, Right to remix: 0 – Viral video gets blocked

The idea was so simple and yet so genius. After the dramatic Euro 2016 quarter finals between Italy and Germany, the web-artist Kurt Prödel had a wonderful idea: he created a 14-second video, which showed all penalties by the German team simultaneously. In the video, all players are running simultaneously towards the Italian goalkeeper who, […]

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December 15, 2010

Data Retention Directive evaluation: expect the unexpected?

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Evaluierung der Vorratsdatenspeicherung: Das Unerwartete erwarten? | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2438] The evaluation of the controversial Data Retention Directive takes an unexpected turn, for the worse. At a crucial one-day conference in Brussels on 3 December 2010, aimed at gathering input for the evaluation, long-term critic of the Directive Commissioner Malmström […]

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January 28, 2004

PNR: Bolkestein's diplomacy and anger Belgian DPA

MEP Marco Cappato has revealed a letter EU Commissioner Bolkestein sent to Tom Ridge, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. The letter was sent on 18 December, only two days after Bolkestein had given his presentation in which he tried to mislead the European Parliament on the true nature of the agreement on the transfer […]

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December 15, 2010

Commission finds solution on notice and takedown and it seeks the problem

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Kommission findet Lösung für Notice and Takedown und sucht nun das Problem | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2439] On 15 December 2010, the European Commission held its third meeting on “public private cooperation to counter the dissemination of illegal content in the European Union.” The first meeting took place in November 2009 […]

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January 28, 2004

Italy: five years data retention

On 28 January 2004, the Italian Lower House approved of a governmental decree-law on mandatory data retention by telephone and internet companies. Government issued the decree on 24 December 2003, without any prior parliamentary debate. All data about electronic communications must now be stored for a period of 5 years. According to the privacy-group ALCEI, […]

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January 14, 2009

UK Culture Secretary wants film-style ratings to individual websites

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The UK Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has presented, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph at the end of the last year, some new plans in adopting to the web “new standards of decency”. The Cabinet minister is planing to give film-style ratings to individual websites and […]

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December 15, 2010 · Blogs

Council text on web blocking – breaking the law to fight crime

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Ratstext zu Netzsperren – Rechtsbruch für den Kampf gegen das Verbrechen | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2441] The Council of Justice Ministers adopted a text on web blocking at its recent meeting in Brussels on 2-3 December 2010. The Belgian Presidency, for domestic reasons, felt obliged to adopt a text during its […]

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December 16, 2009

ENDitorial: What the conquistadores can teach us about ACTA

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ENDitorial: Was uns Konquistadoren über ACTA lehren| http://www.unwatched.org/node/1634] When the conquistadores arrived in the Americas, historians tell us that the viruses that they carried caused devastation among the indigenous populations. For the European invaders, who had been subject to the viruses for longer, the illnesses, while still sometimes […]

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February 11, 2004

Results OECD workshop on spam

During the OECD workshop on spam, held in Brussels on 2 and 3 February, the consumer unions of Europe and the USA (united in the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue) presented the results of a survey amongst 21.102 consumers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 96 percent of the people said that either they hated […]

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