May 2, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention | Transparency

EU Member States fight to retain data retention in place despite CJEU rulings

EU Member States are still working to adopt their position on the ePrivacy Regulation proposed by the European Commission in January 2017. A number of draft compromise texts have been published by the Council Presidency before discussions in the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society (WP TELE).

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June 19, 2003

EP Legal Committee approves of software patents

The European Parliament’s Committee for Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (JURI) voted Tuesday 17 June about a list of proposed amendments to the planned software patent directive. It was the third and last in a series of committee votes. The results will be presented to the parliament in plenary early in September. The other […]

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March 11, 2015 · Blogs

Revelations on Safe Harbour violations go to hearing at EU Court

In late 2012, Max Schrems, a privacy advocate and member of the Europe v Facebook group requested that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner investigate the alleged sharing of European Facebook users’ information with the United States National Security Agency (NSA), in the light of the Snowden revelations. These revelations suggest that Facebook and the US […]

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February 15, 2006

Dispute over data retention costs in Czech Republic

The Czech authorities are currently in a debate with telecommunication companies over the exact amounts they will have to pay to reimburse the costs related to the new data retention legislation that came into force at the middle of the last year. The Czech republic already adopted data retention legislation in the middle of 2005, […]

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February 14, 2007

The ORG and FIPR week of e-voting events

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Last week there were three e-voting events hosted in London by EDRI members, the Open Rights Group (ORG) and the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR). On 6 February guests saw a screening of the documentary film “Hacking Democracy” which reveals in detail the failings of e-voting […]

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June 19, 2003

France ready to ratify Cybercrime convention

France has started the process of ratification of the Council of Europe cybercrime convention. On 11 June, Dominique de Villepin, the French minister of foreign affairs presented to the council of ministers a draft law for the ratification of the convention. France would be the first EU country to ratify the convention, which has only […]

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February 15, 2006

Worldwide overview of freedom of information laws

Roger Vleugels, an independent Netherlands-based legal consultant, published on 1 February, with the help of the Freedom of Information Advocates network, a very comprehensive overview of the situation of of freedom of information laws all over the world. The document offers a complete image of the adoption of FOI laws in the world and is […]

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June 29, 2011

Traffic data fraudulently obtained by the Czech police

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Tschechien: Polizei verschafft sich illegal Zugang zu Verkehrsdaten | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.13_Tschechien_Polizei_verschafft_sich_illegal_Zugang_zu_Verkehrsdaten?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20110708] An inspection of the Czech Interior Ministry has revealed that police detective Marian Hudec from Varnsdorf was gaining phone call statements including those of President Vaclav Klaus´s closest aides as well as those of Constitutional Court Chairman Pavel […]

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July 2, 2003

2 million DNA-profiles in UK police database

On the 100th anniversary of George Orwell, a UK police database with DNA-profiles of suspects reached the number of 2 million. According to an article in the English daily The Guardian, Home Secretary (minister of internal affairs) David Blunkett said the five-year-old database was well on the way to its target of holding 3 million […]

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February 15, 2006

Civil Rights and Consumer Protection in ICANN's policies

In a public call to action released on 13 February 2006, Annette Muehlberg, European member of At-large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and co-chair network new media asked for public support in building up a regional structure to represent individual’s interests and concerns. The petition with the title “Help to strengthen Civil Rights and Consumer Protection in […]

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June 20, 2012

Austria: Data retention petition ignored by the Parliament

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Österreich: Parlament ignoriert Bürgerinitiative zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.12_Oesterreich_Parlament_ignoriert_Buergerinitiative_zur_Vorratsdatenspeicherung?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120620] The Austrian Working Group on Data Retention counters the lack of responsiveness to citizens’ political participation with even more participation. Albeit gaining support of over 100 000 citizens, the Austrian citizens’ petition against data retention has been deferred to the […]

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April 19, 2017 · Blogs

German Social Media law – sharp criticism from leading legal expert

Professor Wolfgang Schulz, one of Europe’s preeminent legal experts, has prepared a short critique of Germany’s so-called “Act improving Law Enforcement on Social Networks”, also known under the abbreviation NetzDG.

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