May 31, 2017 · Blogs

Irish police phone tapping undermines citizens’ rights

An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force has fallen, yet again, under public scrutiny for privacy violations of innocent citizens. An investigation by the Irish Independent newspaper has found that members of the public had their phones tapped without proper justification. The widespread phone tapping was revealed after a senior officer tried to highlight his […]

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March 28, 2007

Civil liberties threatened by the new centralized EU fingerprint database

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) A proposal for the creation of a centralized database of fingerprints from all 27 EU countries was included in a new European Commission document that sets out the goals for 2008. The fingerprints database is to be operational by the end of 2008 and it will include […]

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September 10, 2003

New report finds problems with EU copyright law

European citizens could find many common activities banned as the EU Copyright Directive becomes law, a new report reveals. Transferring songs from a copy-protected CD to a Walkman or computer could be illegal, as could watching a DVD on a computer running Linux. ‘Implementing the EU Copyright Directive’, published 8 September 2003, reports on legal […]

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May 18, 2016 · Blogs

Advocate General: Dynamic IP address can be personal data

On 12 May Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona, Advocate General (AG) of the European Court of Justice (CJEU), gave his opinion in the Case Patrick Breyer against the Federal Republic of Germany, C-582/14. Patrick Breyer sued the German government for violating his right to data protection by storing the data about him visiting websites of the German […]

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June 27, 2018 · Blogs | Information democracy | Freedom of expression online | Platform regulation

Restoring freedom of expression in Spain: end the “gag law”

Spain has been one of the countries of the European Union that has most shamefully stood out for its government’s attitude against freedom of expression and information.

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September 10, 2003

German anonymiser raided by police

The legal victory for privacy was short-lived for the German web anonymiser AN.ON. Only 2 days after a German Court suspended a previous verdict to build a back door in the anonymiser, German police obtained a new court order to raid the offices. On Friday 29 August, the Lower District Court in Frankfurt /Main gave […]

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July 17, 2013 · Blogs

EC notice & action directive to come out of the drawer?

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Bleibt ‘Notice & Action’-Richtlinie in der Schublade? | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.14_Bleibt_Notice_and_Action-Richtlinie_in_der_Schublade?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130717] On 3 July 2013, a number of nine MEPs sent a letter to Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, regarding a Notice-and-Action directive that was not prepared but subsequently not published or proposed by the European […]

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May 18, 2016 · Blogs

Looking back through the French anti-terror arsenal

Following the publication of the Action Plan Against Terrorism and Radicalisation by the French Government, summarising the whole anti-terror strategy of France, built up law by law during the past years, it is important to look back on the main measures presented in this report, especially those affecting civil rights and liberties on the Internet. […]

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May 31, 2017 · Blogs

The EU must take action to protect whistleblowers

The right of citizens to report wrongdoing is a natural extension of the right of freedom of expression, and is linked to the principles of transparency and integrity. – Transparency International Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden are some of the most famous whistleblowers, thanks to their huge impact on the protection of human rights. However, there […]

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September 10, 2003

Fines and prison sentence for Italian spammers

Italy is introducing tough fines and prison sentences against spammers. Senders of unsolicited junk e-mails can expect fines up to a maximum of 90.000 euros and 3 years in prison. The penalties go far beyond those in any other European country. All EU member states will have to outlaw spam by 31 October 2003 as […]

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May 18, 2016 · Blogs

Hungary: New government proposals raise concerns

The Hungarian government is ramping up its “terrorist” measures; a constitutional amendment that establishes a new state of exception is one of the measures it foresees as necessary to keep the population safe. The threat of terrorism in Hungary is considered to be low by the UK Foreign Office, the CIA, and Hungary’s Strategic Defense […]

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May 31, 2017 · Blogs

ENDitorial: Consumer protection MEPs launch attack on consumers

Documents leaked by Julia Reda, a Member the European Parliament (MEP) show that parliamentarians on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), whose job it is to protect consumers and improve legal consistency in the EU, are planning an assault on citizens’ fundamental rights, legal coherence and even the ultimate authority of […]

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