November 17, 2010

Data retention regime in discussion all over Europe

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Diskussion der Vorratsdatenspeicherung quer durch Europa | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2357] While in Germany the Minister of Justice rejects the current data retention regime, Sweden is preparing to implement it. In the meantime, the European Commission is organizing a public debate on the review of the directive, but has delayed its […]

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September 25, 2013 · Blogs

Surveillance scandal in discussion at the United Nations

The surveillance scandal has now reached the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, which opened its 24th session last week to a volley of questions about privacy and spying, many of them targeted at the United States and United Kingdom. (That’s perhaps not surprising, since U.N. representatives were among those listed as being monitored by the […]

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January 15, 2004

PNR: Bolkestein misleads European Parliament

Commissioner Frits Bolkestein concealed important details on the draft agreement reached with the USA on the transfer of Passenger Name Record Data (PNR) to the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection when reporting to two Committees of the European Parliament four weeks ago. This is what Bolkestein’s spokesman Jonathan Todd has admitted in an […]

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December 15, 2010

Rule of law in the hands of private companies.Wikileaks is just the start.

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Das Prinzip der Rechtsstaatlichkeit in den Händen der Privatwirtschaft: WikiLeaks ist erst der Anfang | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2437] Private-sector attempts to undermine and attack the ability of WikiLeaks to function on the Internet have attracted much attention. Their domain name (wikileaks.org) was was taken out of service by EveryDNS, their […]

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June 6, 2007

Italian Government criticized by the Free Software Association

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) After filing a case to the Regional Administrative Tribunal of Lazio against the Italian Ministry of Work for launching a call for tenders where only Microsoft software was considered as eligible, Italian NGO Assoli (Associazione Software Libero) is criticizing again its Government. The problem arose when the […]

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June 18, 2008

OOXML standard on hold by ISO

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in Geneva have postponed the publication of the revised specification of Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) document format, following complaints filed by their member organizations representing these four countries: Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela. The planned […]

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July 2, 2008

ENDitorial: Sweden is listening to all internet and phone conversations

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) In Denmark we already have Data Retention in place and the rest of Europe will follow soon. That means that our own countries demand that Internet companies and phone companies log who we phone, email with, chat with, which websites we visit, etc. This is something that […]

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January 28, 2009

Privacy in Germany 2008: A new fundamental right, a privacy mass movement, and the usual surveillance suspects

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The year of 2008 can be marked as the year where privacy moved high on the public agenda in Germany. On 1st of January, the law on data retention went into effect, which made Germany drop from number one to seven in the country ranking published by […]

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September 23, 2015 · Blogs

State of play of internet freedom in the Netherlands

Dutch EDRi member Bits of Freedom is diligently watching a set of broad tendencies, such as the dominant positions of a handful of tech giants, the Internet of Things, and the idea that technology cannot be neutral. Bits of Freedom is also working hard to prevent the occurrence of a number of very real threats […]

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February 25, 2009

Lex Nokia storms into the Finnish Parliament

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Lex Nokias Einzug ins Finnische Parlament | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1304] This article is also available in: Macedonian: [Лекс Нокиа влегува во финскиот парла… | http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1392/4/lang,mk/] Government bill dubbed as Lex Nokia, also known as the snooping law, entered the Parliament for debate on 24 February 2009. The bill has been […]

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February 24, 2010

Germany's President signs an Internet bill against his own government

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Deutschlands Bundespräsident unterzeichnet Internetgesetz gegen seine eigene Regierung | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1723] Despite the fact that the German Government had decided not to apply the internet censorship law (Zugangserschwerungsgesetz) proposed by the former Government in April 2009, the new bill was signed on 17 February 2010 by German President Horst […]

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March 11, 2009

No e-voting in Germany

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Keine E-Wahlen in Deutschland | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1327] Macedonian: [Нема е-гласање во Германија | http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1397/4/lang,mk/] The German Federal Constitutional Court decided on 3 March 2009 that electronic voting used for the last 10 years, including for the 2005 general elections, was unconstitutional and therefore not to be used for the […]

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