January 24, 2018 · Blogs | Information democracy | Transparency

You can’t uphold the law by breaking the law

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) invited EDRi member Bits of Freedom to speak at their annual New Year’s Seminar. Hans De Zwart, Director of Bits of Freedom, talked about how the rule of law can only be defended by the European Union taking an exemplary role including by strictly adhering to […]

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October 5, 2005

Consultation European Commission on library digitising

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on its program to digitise the collections of European libraries. The program on digital libraries is a response to a letter sent in April this year by six European presidents and priministers to create a virtual European library. On 30 September the Commission adopted a Communication on […]

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August 4, 2004

Recommended participation: nanotech and DRM

The European Commission is organising two interesting public consultation rounds, on nanotechnology and on digital rights management (DRM). The consultation on nanotechnology invites public feedback on the communication ‘Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology’, in which the Commission proposes an integrated and responsible approach for developing nanosciences and nanotechnologies in Europe. All interested people are […]

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October 5, 2005

NL: 50.000 ID fines in 9 months

Since the introduction of compulsory identification in the Netherlands on January 1st 2005, the police have fined 50.000 people that could or would not present a valid ID. Almost 4.000 of those who were fined were children aged 14 and 15. The statistics are provided by the Central Judicial Collection office. About 25% of the […]

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March 9, 2011

Four Big Brother Awards for heavyweight Dutch privacy violations

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Vier Big Brother Awards für grobe Verstöße gegen den niederländischen Datenschutz | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.5_Big_Brother_Awards_Niederlande] The biggest Dutch privacy violations of 2010 have been awarded a Big Brother Award on 9 March 2011 in Amsterdam. At the ceremonies, organized by EDRi-member Bits of Freedom, an independent jury selected four ‘lucky’ […]

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August 25, 2004

New US demands on European postal services

According to a publication in the Austrian e-zine Futurezone the USA have demanded extensive advance information from European postal services about packages before they are being shipped to the United States. The US border control system US-VISIT is already being fed with data about airline passengers before they enter the territory, but must now be […]

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November 18, 2015 · Blogs

UK Draft Investigatory Powers Bill: Missed opportunity

The UK Government has published a draft of the long-awaited Investigatory Powers Bill. Since the Snowden revelations, civil liberty groups have been calling for a new law that would restrain the UK intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The UK government, however, has been calling for increased surveillance powers since the failure of the draft Communications […]

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February 27, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Cross border access to data | Surveillance and data retention

New UK counter-terrorism law limits online freedoms

The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 became law in the United Kingdom (UK) in February, after passing through UK parliament with less debate than many had hoped, while Brexit dominated the political agenda. The new law is problematic in many ways, including the way in which it limits freedom of expression and access to […]

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April 15, 2020 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

COVID-Tech: Emergency responses to COVID-19 must not extend beyond the crisis

In EDRi's new series on COVID-19, we will explore the critical principles for protecting fundamental rights while curtailing the spread of the virus, as outlined in the EDRi network's statement on the virus. Each post in this series will tackle a specific issue at the intersection of digital rights and the global pandemic in order to explore broader questions about how to protect fundamental rights in a time of crisis.

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January 24, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

ENDitorial: Living as if being at an airport

The internet is starting to look more and more like an airport. Not only because of the ubiquitous surveillance, but also in the way that advertising is trying to steal our attention. Should we start working on a right to not be addressed?

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October 5, 2005

Spanish game programmer acquitted

Only twenty minutes were needed in the Spanish court of Seville in order to acquit the Spanish game programmer who was facing up to one year in prison for making a video-game that made fun of religious practices (see EDRI-Gram 3.19). After showing repent, and stating that his intention was not really to offend anyone, […]

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April 8, 2009

Big Brother Awards France 2009

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Big Brother Awards Frankreich 2009 | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1363] The French Big Brother Awards ceremony, or ‘Orwell Party’, was held this year on Saturday 4 April. The 2009 edition awarded 12 of the 35 nominees, in 6 categories, one of them being the positive ‘Voltaire Award’. Armand Mattelart, a renowned […]

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