May 6, 2015 · Blogs

Emotion tracking company gets funding from the European Commission

Realeyes is a London based start-up company that tracks people’s facial reactions through webcams and smartphones in order to analyse their emotions. The analysed data is used to help companies maximise the impact of their advertising and market research campaigns. The technology allows the companies to know how consumers feel when they view the video […]

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September 25, 2003

Verisign violates privacy millions of internet users

Verisign, the US based registrar of the .com and .net top level domain, refuses to stop redirecting internet users to its own search engine Site Finder. Since 15 September everybody who makes a mistake in typing a web address is re-directed to their website, instead of just getting an error message. In spite of massive […]

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April 12, 2006

Changes in the Slovenian Intelligence Agency Act

The proposed changes of Slovenian Intelligence Agency Act (ZSOVA) raised questions about its unconstitutionality. The government would like to exclude the current 6-month limitation for use of special operative methods, e.g. mail monitoring, recording of telephone conversations etc. The Government invoked cooperation with EU and NATO in the fight against terrorism as the reason for […]

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September 12, 2012

EDRi on child protection policy

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [EDRi zum Thema Kinderschutz | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.17_EDRi_zum_Thema_Kinderschutz?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120918] The interests of children should be put first, even if that means allowing them to learn and adapt to online risks An unseen threat is the scariest threat of all. An unseen threat to our children provokes our most basic protective instincts, […]

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May 10, 2006

Chechen web site shut down in Sweden

After many complaints from Russia, the Swedish authorities closed up on 5 May, Kavkazcenter.com, a Chechen separatist Web site that allegedly encouraged terrorism. The police arrived at PRQ Web hosting company in Stockholm with a search warrant and confiscated two servers. The Finish owner of the servers, Mikael Storsjo, told Swedish news agency TT that […]

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May 23, 2007

US official makes PNR demands to the European Parliament

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) As the negotiations of the PNR (Passenger Name Records) issue continue between the US Government and the European Parliament, during his visit to Brussels on 14 May, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asked for more relaxed restrictions on the personal data transfer from the airline companies. […]

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July 12, 2016 · Blogs

Algorithms – censorship à la carte?

On 17 June, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) presented software designed to stop the proliferation of “extremist“ video and audio online. CEP is a non-profit organisation that states as its mission “combating extremist groups”. Of course, this algorithm alone can do nothing: To be operational, it needs a database of already identified “extremist” content. Humans […]

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July 15, 2015 · Blogs

Remembering Özgür Uçkan

Özgür Uçkan, one of the pioneers of the digital rights and free Internet movement in Turkey, passed away on 10 July. He was 54 years old, and had been battling with cancer for two years. He was one of the founders of the Turkish EDRi member Alternative Informatics Association (AIA) and his contribution to the […]

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January 14, 2009

Montenegro blocks Facebook and Youtube for civil servants

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Montenegro’s office in charge with the government Internet infrastructure decided to ban access to several social networking or video sharing websites, such as YouTube or Facebook. The public servants were announced by a statement sent at the end of December 2008 by the office to all civil […]

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July 18, 2007

Media and telecom companies oppose CISAC proposal

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) On 10 July 2007, the EU Commission received a letter from a large group including some of Europe’s biggest media groups and telecom companies urging for the rejection of an offer made by EU national royalty-collecting societies to settle an anti-trust case. The Commission started examining a […]

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December 5, 2012 · Blogs

Danish opposition wants to abandon the illegal medicine site blocking

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Dänemark: Opposition will Netzsperren gegen illegalen Medikamentenhandel aufgeben | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.23_Daenemark_Opposition_will_Netzsperren_gegen_illegalen_Medikamentenhandel_aufgeben?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121205] A majority outside the Danish government parties proposes to abandon blocking access to websites selling illegal medicine. The law (a new revision of the laws regulating selling of medicine etc.) allowing blocking of these sites was passed in […]

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September 20, 2016 · Blogs

ENDitorial: “Hate speech”: Who’s the German for hypocrisy

German interior minister Thomas De Maizière has a simple solution for “hate speech”. He believes that other people should stop it. He believes that someone (else) should do something. In particular, he is very keen that American internet companies should become much more involved in policing, suppressing and punishing what they consider to be “hate […]

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