April 17, 2011 · Blogs

EDRi evaluation of data retention shows it has significant costs but no benefits

In advance of the European Commission the publication of its long overdue evaluation report on the Data Retention Directive, EDRi has published its own “shadow report”. This Directive currently requires long-term indiscriminate storage of records of every electronic communication of every person in the European Union. European Digital Rights (EDRi), concludes in a parallel ‘shadow […]

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December 17, 2014 · Blogs

EDRi paper for the Council of Europe: “Human Rights Online”

EDRi drafted an expert paper on “Human Rights Violations Online” to offer a practical backdrop to the Guide to Human Rights for Internet users adopted by Council of Europe on 16 April 2014. The Guide informs readers about what online rights and freedoms mean in practice, how they can be relied and acted upon and […]

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December 19, 2014 · Blogs

EDRi Awards 2014

For the first time this year and with great solemnity, EDRi presents its first annual awards. 1. The “Humpty Dumpty Award” for the most silly “statistics”. Winner: Deutsche Telekom, for its “One Million Cyber Attacks per day”. This statistic was not plagiarised by any of DT’s employees. Honourable Mention: TERA for its “study” on losses […]

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May 22, 2019 · Blogs | Information democracy | Disinformation and electoral interference | Freedom of expression online

Christchurch call − pseudo-counter-terrorism at the cost of human rights?

The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden showed compassionate and empathetic leadership in her response to the Christchurch terrorist attack on a mosque in her country on 15 March 2019. On 16 May in Paris, Arden and the French President Emmanuel Macron co-launched the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist […]

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March 21, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

EU Council indecision on ePrivacy is bad for Europe

In 2017, the United States National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Department of Commerce, warned of the “chill on discourse and economic activity” caused by privacy and security fears.

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December 4, 2013 · Blogs

European Parliament Will Rule On Net Neutrality

EDRi has waited for years for concrete proposals to enshrine the net neutrality principle in the European Union law. Since 2010, there has also been an increasing number of calls from the European Parliament to guarantee net neutrality. Finally, in September 2013, the European Commission has proposed a draft Regulation which aims at protecting the […]

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June 5, 2019 · Highlights | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Facebook fails to avoid CJEU judgment on NSA case

On 31 May 2019, the Irish Supreme Court decided over an unprecedented application by Facebook. The decision is part of an ongoing procedure on Facebook’s involvement with the United States Nationa Security Agency (NSA) under the so-called “PRISM” surveillance program before the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the Irish High Court.

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February 24, 2016 · Blogs

Possible Voters’ Registry Breach raise Privacy Issues in Macedonia

The return to democracy in Macedonia has been marred by the need to solve political and human rights issues. The right to privacy has been at the centre of the political crisis, and state institutions undergoing reform struggle to meet the standards set by the Law on Personal Data Protection. From February to May 2015, […]

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April 17, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Cross border access to data

EU “e-evidence” proposals turn service providers into judicial authorities

Today, 17 April, the European Commission unveiled two proposals: a Regulation on cross-border access to and preservation of electronic data held by service providers and a Directive to require service providers to appoint a legal representative within the EU. The core of the Commission’s “e-evidence” initiative is that national judicial or administrative bodies can ask […]

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April 6, 2016 · Blogs

CJEU hearing on the EU Canada PNR agreement: Still shady

The European Court of Justice (CJEU) had a hearing on 5 April to decide about the referral made on 25 November by the European Parliament on the EU-Canada agreement on Passenger Name Records (PNR). Passenger Name Records (PNR) include information provided by passengers and collected by air carriers for commercial purposes, such as, but not […]

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April 6, 2016 · Blogs

Intelligence organisations get more surveillance powers in Romania

The past few months brought Romania three different surveillance proposals which blatantly increase the powers of the already excessively powerful Romanian intelligence organisations. 1. The first proposal is the new cybersecurity bill that we’ve already covered in past EDRi-gram articles. It would put computer and network security almost entirely under the purview of the many […]

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April 27, 2017 · Blogs

AVMS Directive: It isn’t censorship if the content is mostly legal, right?

AVMSD – What is it? The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) was originally designed for satellite TV, where broadcasters are a) in full editorial control and b) content is actively transmitted to viewers. It was subsequently extended to “on-demand” services, where providers a) make an active choice to decide what is made available, but b) […]

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