March 6, 2015 · Blogs

EU Council proposals on open internet – Episode 2, the clown wars

After one year of negotiations, a second element of the telecoms regulation was also agreed by the EU Council: arbitrary, ad hoc law enforcement by internet companies. The Council has decided that this is something that internet companies may do, may not do and may do (Council text, pdf). When the European Commission proposed its […]

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September 23, 2019 · Blogs | Campaigns | Information democracy | Privacy and data protection | Online tracking industry / AdTech | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices

Your mail, their ads. Your rights?

In the digital space, “postal services” often snoop into your online conversations in order to market services or products according to what they find out from your chats. A law meant to limit this exploitative practice is stalled by the Council of European Union

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February 10, 2014 · Document pools

Net Neutrality: primary document pool

As the debate about net neutrality is moving forward in the European Parliament we are closely following the proceedings and giving input on all levels along the way. Because of the tight timetable imposed by the European Commission, many of the discussions in the Parliament are happening in ways which make it difficult for parliamentarians, […]

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April 6, 2016 · Blogs

Final consultation to save the open Internet in Europe

The future of the open and competitive Internet in Europe (so-called “net neutrality”) will be decided in Europe in the coming months. After regulators in India and the United States ruled that Internet companies are not permitted to undermine innovation, competition and free speech, now it is Europe’s turn. Failure in the EU will have […]

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March 12, 2015 · Blogs

Dutch data retention law struck down – for now

Published originally by EDRi-member Bits of Freedom  And then everything went BANG: from our Twitter-timeline to the champagne bottle at our office. This morning the court annulled the data retention law. Effective immediately. But what exactly did the judge say and what will happen now? The data-retention law requires telecom providers to save communication- and […]

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April 19, 2017 · Blogs

AVMS Directive – censorship by coercive comedy confusion

On 25 April 2017, the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) will vote on its report on the European Commission’s proposal on Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). To understand just how confused the proposal is, it is worth understanding its history. In 1989, the EU adopted the “Television without Frontiers” Directive, to regulate cross-border […]

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March 23, 2015 · Blogs

EU trade secrets Directive: threat to free speech, health, environment and worker mobility

STATEMENT (pdf) 23 March 2015 (updated from 17 December 2014) Multi-sectoral civil society coalition calls for greater protections for consumers, journalists, whistleblowers, researchers and workers We strongly oppose the hasty push by the European Commission and Council for a new European Union (EU) directive on trade secrets because it contains: – An unreasonably broad definition […]

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April 20, 2016 · Blogs

CETA to get priority ahead of EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

CETA will undermine EU Charter of Fundamental Rights In February 2016, the European Commission and Canadian government published the final draft text of the EU – Canada trade agreement (CETA), prior to its approval or rejection by the Council, European Parliament and, possibly, national parliaments. The Court of Justice of the EU in October 2015 […]

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February 18, 2014 · Blogs

European Commission on global internet governance – do as we say, please don’t do as we do

On 12 February, the European Commission produced a broadly solid Communication (pdf) on global internet governance. Some of the policies promoted on a global level by the European Commission are really excellent – defend and promote fundamental rights and democratic values, multi-stakeholder governance structures, clear rules that respect rights and values and a single unfragmented […]

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February 21, 2014 · Blogs

Private copying levies – the choice between incoherence and a fair and balanced approach

After being delayed from December to January and from January to February, the incoherent, inaccurate, incomprehensible, contradictory “Castex Report” (PDF) on private copying levies was finally adopted by the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament last week. Next week**, the European Parliament has the choice to accept the deeply flawed text adopted by the […]

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April 20, 2016 · Blogs

Trilogues: the system that undermines EU democracy and transparency

Most of the legislation of the European Union (EU) is today adopted using an informal, non-democratic, non-accountable and non-transparent process. This mechanism is known in the EU bubble as “trilogues” or “trialogues”. Trilogues are a set of informal negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission to fast-track […]

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May 3, 2017 · Blogs

EU data protection watchdogs support stronger ePrivacy legislation

On 10 January 2017, the European Commission (EC) published its long-awaited proposal for an e-Privacy Regulation (ePR) to replace the 2002 e-Privacy Directive (ePD). In April 2017, two Opinions were issued to provide comments and recommendations on how to better safeguard the right to privacy, confidentiality of communications, and the protection of personal data in the […]

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