September 24, 2014 · Blogs

Romania: Mandatory prepaid SIM registration ruled unconstitutional

The Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled on 16 September 2014 that a law that required the mandatory registration of all prepaid SIM cards and free WiFi users, is unconstitutional, as a whole. The Court reviewed the law as a result of the Romanian Ombudsman’s objection concerning its possible unconstitutionality. Several human rights NGOs asked the […]

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March 10, 2010

Survey on Chip implants in Germany

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Gutachten zu Chipimplantaten in Deutschland | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1761] According to a survey carried out by German IT industry lobby group BITKOM, 23% out of 1000 German respondents would accept to have a microchip implanted in their body if that would bring concrete benefits from it. The survey was meant […]

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June 30, 2004

WSIS Tunisia prepcom report

The first Prepcom of the WSIS second phase took place from 24 to 26 June 2004 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The Prepcom started with major obstruction of civil society participation even before civil society could make their first intervention in the governmental plenary session. On the second morning of the Prepcom, the Tunisian ambassador objected in […]

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March 10, 2010

Declaration on Safer Internet proposed in the Macedonian Parliament

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Deklaration zu Safer Internet im makedonischen Parlament beantragt | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1762] On 24 February 2010, a group of MPs submitted a Draft-Declaration on Safer Internet during the 39th session of the Commission for Transport, Communications and Environment of the Macedonian Parliament. MP Aleksandar Spasenovski is the initiator of the […]

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June 30, 2004

Report OSCE conference on racism on the internet

Is there any proven link between hate speech on the Internet and committed hate crimes ? This was the difficult question faced by a meeting organised by OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) on the relationship between racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet and hate crimes, which was held in Paris […]

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September 12, 2007

Reactions on the ISO voting procedures

The recent vote on the OOXML draft standard revealed a number of problems with the ISO procedures, at national as well as international level. The national procedures have been often accused of being influenced by Microsoft, especially in Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the US. Protests about Microsoft exerting improper influence on the […]

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October 8, 2014 · Blogs

Ex parte domain name seizures in Denmark

At the beginning of October, news media in Denmark reported about the seizure of the domain name raybansolbrillerudsalg.dk, which allegedly had been used for selling counterfeit products to Danish consumers. The Danish e-commerce Foundation, which administers the official Danish accreditation for safe online trading (the e-mark), has compiled a list of 1141 domains accused of […]

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November 4, 2015 · Blogs

Minister of Interior and National Police Force win Dutch BBA 2015

Amsterdam hosted four big privacy conferences in October 2015: the Amsterdam Privacy Conference and the Privacy Law Scholars Conference, both for academia, the International Privacy Conference for regulators, and the Dutch Big Brother Awards, organised by EDRi member Bits of Freedom on 29 October in Stadsschouwburg. The winner of the Big Brother Audience Award is […]

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March 9, 2011 · Blogs

Dutch Internet providers abandon "ineffective" web blocking

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Niederländische Internetprovider verzichten auf “unwirksame” Websperren | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.5_Niederlande_Provider_verzichten_auf_Netzsperren] In 2010, the largest Dutch internet providers were taking steps to implement the blocking of blacklists provided by the Dutch Child Abuse hotline. EDRi has always insisted that the blocking of websites with images of sexual child abuse is a […]

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February 27, 2019 · On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Data protection standards

Light at the end of the cyber tunnel: New IoT consumer standard

In February 2019, positive advancements were made regarding security standards in consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices: The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) published a standard numbered TS 103 645, more appealingly named “Cyber Security for Consumer Internet of Things”. Under this new standard, compliant products will be expected to have unique passwords, a vulnerability […]

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September 26, 2007

Largest anti-surveillance street protest in Germany for 20 years

On Saturday, 22 September 2007, more than 15,000 took to the streets of Berlin under the slogan “Liberty instead of Fear – stop the Surveillance Mania!”. Several Civil Liberty organisations, affiliated in the “Working Group Data Retention” (Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung), organised the march. 55 groups called for participation, among them the “Young Liberals” (Junge Liberale, Youth […]

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August 4, 2004

Swiss protest against new personal identification number

The Swiss data protection authorities and several political parties have used a governmental consultation round to protest against a proposal to introduce a new sectoral ID number for persons, the SPIN law. According to the privacy authorities, the proposed law violates both constitutional and data protection principles. The new personal identification number would be sectoral […]

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