September 12, 2007

The European Court of Human Rights could influence the UK DNA database

Sir Stephen Sedley has recently proposed the enlargement of the DNA database in UK to cover the entire population and visitors that stay in UK even for a week, under the argument of creating a fairer system and eliminating the ethnical unbalance in the present database. But a case brought by 2 English people to […]

Read more

October 19, 2016 · Blogs

Orange is the new blacklist

On Monday morning 17 October, Orange customers who tried to access Google.fr, fr.wikipedia.org and other sites found themselves being redirected to the site of the Interior Ministry explaining that those sites were blocked. The banned websites were accused of “provoking terrorist acts or publicly glorifying terrorist acts”.

Read more

 

April 1, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Surveillance by default: PATRIOT Act extended?

On 15 March, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and several other similar legal provisions, were due to expire and begin the process of reform and review to incorporate new legal protections of privacy. However, as a result of a coordinated effort by both chambers of the US Congress, the provisions may be extended for at least 77 days.

Read more

 

August 4, 2004

Linux-plans Munich threatened by EU software patents

The plans from the city council of Munich, Germany, to migrate all civil servants to open source Linux software, are endangered by the proposed new EU software patents directive. The Greens in Munich have filed 2 motions on 30 July 2004 demanding more research into how the directive affects the project. A cursory search revealed […]

Read more

November 4, 2015 · Blogs

Austrian BBA awarded to the new intelligence services act

On 25 October, Austrian EDRi member q/uintessenz organised the annual Big Brother Awards Gala. It was held in Vienna at the Rabenhof Theatre, with over 300 people attending to “honour” the biggest privacy invaders of this year. Organised annually since 1999, this was the 17th time the Gala was held. It was broadcast via national […]

Read more

 

February 13, 2013 · Blogs

Ancillary copyright law under discussion in Germany

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Deutschland: Debatte um Leistungsschutzrecht | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.3_Deutschland_Debatte_um_Leistungsschutzrecht?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130224] The Judiciary Committee of the German Bundestag held on 30 January 2013 an expert hearing on the proposed “Leistungsschutzrecht” (LRS, known also as “ancillary copyright”) law for news publishers which will require search engines and others to ask permission from news publishers […]

Read more

August 25, 2004

EU prepares ban on banknote forgery software

According to an article in the UK newspaper The Observer, computer and software manufacturers in Europe are to be forced to introduce new security measures to make it impossible for their products to be used to copy banknotes. The move, to be drafted into European Union legislation before the end of the year, is presented […]

Read more

April 22, 2009

Launch of the first European Civil Liberties Day

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Einstand zum ersten Europäischen Tag der Bürgerrechte | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1374] Macedonian: [Организиран првиот Европски ден на… | http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1440/4/lang,mk/] Earlier this month, over a hundred politicians, journalists and campaigners attended the launch of the first European Civil Liberties Day – 15 April at the European Parliament. Organised by the Liberals […]

Read more

November 19, 2014 · Blogs

Irish ISP introduces child porn blocking – doesn’t know why

The Irish broadband provider UPC has introduced blocking for web addresses that are alleged to contain child abuse material. It chose an interesting moment to do this – with the total number of domains allegedly hosting abuse material half what it was ten years ago and with sites staying online for historically short periods of […]

Read more

 

November 19, 2014 · Blogs

Denmark plans to use PNR data for increased Schengen border control

In Denmark, there is currently a public consultation for a new draft law which aims at improving the border checks at Denmark’s Schengen borders. Formally, the Schengen Border Code has abolished border checks at EU’s internal borders, but, under Article 21, member states are still allowed to carry out identity checks in the border territory, […]

Read more

 

November 3, 2005

French minister: copyright above privacy

After the French data protection authority CNIL published a strong rejection of the systematic collection of IP-addresses by the music and film industry, the French minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, said he would look at the current implementation of the Copyright Directive to override these privacy-hurdles. The proposal for implementation will be discussed […]

Read more

November 3, 2005

Greek court will rule on CCTV

The Greek public prosecution service has filed an appeal on 11 October 2005 at the highest administrative court of Greece against a decision by the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (DPA) that a new large high-tech CCTV system in Athens can only be used to monitor traffic. The Greek DPA decided that the CCTV cameras could […]

Read more