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 […]

Read more

 

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 […]

Read more

 

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 […]

Read more

 

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) […]

Read more

 

April 23, 2008

More Internet content blacklisted in Europe

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The European Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs have agreed to make publishing bomb-making instructions on the Internet a crime. The French authorities are discussing making the publication on the Internet of any alleged pro-anorexia information a crime. Justice and interior ministers from the EU member states […]

Read more

July 26, 2017 · Blogs

Copyright Directive discussed in Romania

On 23 June 2017, EDRi member Asociația pentru Tehnologie și Internet (ApTI) along with The National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries of Romania (ANBPR) and the Center for Independent Journalism (CJI) organised a meeting on the topic of the proposed EU Copyright Directive. Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Victor Negrescu took part in […]

Read more

 

November 17, 2010

European Commission takes next step towards data protection review

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Europäische Kommission setzt den nächsten Schritt zur Überprüfung der Datenschutzrichtlinie | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2358] The European Commission has published a Communication on “a comprehensive approach to personal data protection in the European Union”, as the final stage in the consultation process leading to a review of the 1995 Data Protection […]

Read more

May 7, 2008

EDPS wants data protection considered by EU research projects

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) wants privacy and data protection requirements to be considered in the future EU research and technological development (RTD) projects, especially those developing information and communication technologies. The EDPS’ main role is to monitor EU developments which have an impact […]

Read more

June 29, 2016 · Blogs

Poland adopted a controversial anti-terrorism law

On 22 June, the Polish president signed a new anti-terrorism law. The law contains measures that are inconsistent with the Polish Constitution and with the European Convention on Human Rights. The list of controversies is long: foreigners’ phone calls can be wire-tapped without a court order, and police can collect their fingerprints, biometric photos and […]

Read more

 

November 19, 2003

French study warns against spam via Plaxo

The ad-hoc French organisation ‘halte au spam’ (stop spam) organised a successful forum on spam in Paris on 3 November. The forum was attended by more than 200 people, including 25 journalists. During the forum an interesting new study was presented about the privacy-dangers of social internet-tools like Plaxo. Plaxo’s service invites you to upload […]

Read more

January 15, 2004

Schengen information system goes biometric

With the planned inclusion of two biometric identifiers into EU Member States’ passports and ID Cards as well as Visa to the EU, it was only a question of time when the first plans to store these identifiers in an EU-wide database would be announced. The announcement came shortly before Christmas: Biometric data will, according […]

Read more

September 20, 2017 · Blogs | Information democracy | Data protection standards | Freedom of expression online | Transparency

Did the EU Commission hide a study that did not suit their agenda?

In 2013, the European Commission announced a launch of a study on copyright – and never published its results. Julia Reda, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), tabled a freedom of information request on this issue and was eventually granted access to the study.

Read more