February 21, 2018 · Blogs | Information democracy | Transparency

European Ombudsman shares EDRi’s concerns on Council transparency

On 13 February 2018, the European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly published a Recommendation regarding the transparency of the legislative work of the Council of the European Union. Her strategic inquiry, which involved the examination of the Council’s work around the legislative course of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), among other files, showed that the Council’s […]

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November 3, 2005

European Data Protection Supervisor newsletter

The European Data Protection Supervisor has started an e-mail newsletter to inform a general public about his activities such as opinions, policy papers and publications. The October newsletter contains brief information and links to the EDPS’s involvement in PNR and the Visa Information System. The newsletter also mentions a policy paper on the conflict between […]

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November 5, 2008

Big Brother Awards Finland 2008

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) EFFi (Electronic Frontier Finland) gave out Big Brother Awards for the fifth time in a ceremony held at Helsinki Book Fair on 25 October 2008. This year, Big Brother Awards were given to companies and public servants who had done the most to promote an Orwellian surveillance […]

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February 21, 2018 · On the ground | Information democracy | Equal access to the internet

T-Mobile treats everyone equally unequally

The Dutch national regulatory authority, Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), has again decided that the mobile operator T-Mobile does in fact respect European net neutrality rules. EDRi-member Bits of Freedom believes the decision of ACM is short-sighted. On 8 February 2018, the regulatory authority published its decision on our objection to its decision on […]

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October 24, 2007

"Oscars for Data Leeches" – German Big Brother Awards 2007

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The 2007 Ceremony for the German Big Brother Awards called “Oscars for Data Leeches” took place on 12 October in Bielefeld when the jury had the difficult task of choosing from more than 500 nominations. The negative Big Brother Awards Germany, which have started in 2000, are […]

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October 9, 2013 · Blogs

Joint letter on Market Surveillance and Product Safety Regulation

On 2 October 2013, EDRi signed a joint letter together with other civil society groups and organisations (CCIA, EDIMa, EuroISPA, EEA and EMOTA) asking the competent EU institutions to act on the amendments to the draft Regulations on Market Surveillance and Product Safety that could have far-reaching consequences affecting online commerce and Internet intermediaries freedom. […]

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October 24, 2007

COMMUNIA: public domain and alternative licensing for knowledge-sharing

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Today’s digital networks offer extraordinary new opportunities for sharing and building upon our global, public pool of knowledge. Shedding light on the scientific, educational, economical, ethical and political importance of the digital public domain has, therefore, become crucial for the future of our knowledge-based societies. This is […]

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April 17, 2011 · Blogs

EDRi evaluation of data retention shows it has significant costs but no benefits

In advance of the European Commission the publication of its long overdue evaluation report on the Data Retention Directive, EDRi has published its own “shadow report”. This Directive currently requires long-term indiscriminate storage of records of every electronic communication of every person in the European Union. European Digital Rights (EDRi), concludes in a parallel ‘shadow […]

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January 11, 2017 · Blogs

ENDitorial: Happiness – owning nothing and having no privacy?

In November 2016, Danish social-liberal parliamentarian Ida Auken wrote a chilling, dystopian article that was published on the website of the World Economic Forum. It looked forward to a hypothetical society in the year 2030, where nobody owned anything, not even their own personal space, not their own secrets, not their own life. In an […]

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January 13, 2016 · Blogs

Dutch government says no to weakening encryption

The Dutch government will, “at this time”, “not adopt restrictive legislative measures against the development, availability and use of encryption within the Netherlands.” This statement was posted by the Dutch government in a letter to the Dutch parliament on 4 January 2016. This is clearly position to be applauded. In the letter, the government recognises […]

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May 20, 2009

Another open door for software patents in EU

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Noch eine offene Tür für Softwarepatente in der EU | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1409] A new international treaty United Patent Litigation System (UPLS) that may create an centralised trusted patent court is the new open door for software patents in the European Union. The draft UPLS is inspired from the now […]

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March 19, 2013 · Blogs

Parliament Legal Affairs Committee adopts improved position on privacy legislation

The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) has adopted its Opinion on the Data Protection Regulation. Even though the adopted text has fatal flaws, it represents a significant improvement compared with the Opinions adopted in other committees. Despite the avalanche of lobbying by a section of industry, business associations, “SME associations” funded by big business, […]

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