February 24, 2016 · Blogs

Transparent consumers – a report by Bits of Freedom

Data brokers follow everything you do. What you buy, where you live, what you like and what this information says about you. They sell profiles based on this information to other companies. Starting last summer, Bits of Freedom conducted research with Dutch online newspaper De Correspondent as part of the ‘Quantified society’ programme. We looked […]

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January 18, 2006

Comparison between US and European anti-terror policies

In a report titled ” Threatening the Open Society: Comparing Anti-terror Policies and Strategies in the U.S. and Europe” and released on 13 December 2005, Privacy International compared the anti-terrorism approaches in the U.S. with those in Europe. The report finds that on every policy involving mass surveillance of its citizens, the EU is prepared […]

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April 23, 2003

Global Privacy Award announced

The human rights group Privacy International (PI) has announced that it will this year host the first international Big Brother Awards. The Awards, which started in the UK in 1998, were established to ‘name and shame’ the most relentless government and private sector privacy invaders. They have now become an annual event in fifteen countries. […]

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July 3, 2019 · Blogs | Information democracy | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

EU worries over the possibility of losing wiretapping powers

5G telecoms networks could render obsolete the “lawful interception” techniques that police is traditionally using, unless the European Union and national governments take action. This was revealed in internal EU documents obtained by EDRi member Statewatch, that has published a new analysis explaining the issues and calling for a public debate. “It is unsurprising that […]

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June 1, 2011

European IP policy is crippling the European digital economy

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Europäische Politk zu geistigem Eigentum lähmt digitale Wirtschaft | http://bit.ly/lhLNSK] European policy makers are strangling the digital economy, hurting consumers and putting Europeans’ fundamental rights at risk, according to a report into the failures of IP policy making in Europe, published by EDRi on 24.05.2011. The report sets […]

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February 29, 2016 · Blogs

Press Release: Privacy Shield is the same unsafe harbour

Today, the European Commission published the “Privacy Shield” documents, which confirm that no meaningful reforms have been made and that none are planned. In November 2013, the European Commission adopted a Communication  (pdf), in which it finally recognised the failure of the EU-US data transfer arrangement – the so-called “Safe Harbour” agreement. It then started a […]

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April 17, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Cross border access to data

EU “e-evidence” proposals turn service providers into judicial authorities

Today, 17 April, the European Commission unveiled two proposals: a Regulation on cross-border access to and preservation of electronic data held by service providers and a Directive to require service providers to appoint a legal representative within the EU. The core of the Commission’s “e-evidence” initiative is that national judicial or administrative bodies can ask […]

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May 9, 2012

Slovakia: Mandatory e-forms work only on software from one vendor

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Slowakei: Verpflichtende Web-Lösung funktioniert nur mit Software eines einzigen Herstellers | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.9_Slowakei_Verpflichtende_Web-Loesung_funktioniert_nur_mit_Software_eines_einzigen_Herstellers?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120509] In Slovakia, a law introduced to reduce red tape has led to injustice. The state has mandated electronic means as the only way of fulfilling certain statutory obligations. However the dedicated web solution excludes some citizens […]

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March 8, 2017 · Blogs

Denmark: Our data retention law is illegal, but we keep it for now

On 2 March 2017, the Danish Minister of Justice appeared before the Legal Affairs Committee of the Danish Parliament to answer questions about the implications of the Tele2 data retention ruling (joined cases C-203/15 and C-698/15) from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In his statement to the committee, the Minister started […]

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May 7, 2003

European Court of Justice rules on copyright fees

A recent verdict from the European Court of Justice implies that all EU countries should choose the same legislative translation of ‘equitable remuneration’, a crucial formula in the European Copyright Directive. Weighing the case of the Dutch copyright collecting society SENA versus the national broadcasting organisation NOS, the Court explains how the 1992 EU directive […]

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January 18, 2006 · Blogs

New editor EDRI-gram

The EDRI-gram fundraising campaign has been very successful. Thanks to the kind donations of both individuals and companies, EDRI is confident it will be able to afford 24 editions of EDRI-gram in 2006. Pledges for support will be collected in February 2006, after EDRI is sure it has guarantees for the full amount of 3.500 […]

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May 7, 2003

Shareholders give Big Brother Award to Bayer AG

Critical shareholders of the German medicine-company Bayer AG have presented the Big Brother Award to the board during the annual shareholders meeting in Cologne on 25 April 2003. The Award was given to the company in October 2002 for demanding a drug test from every employee applying for in-company training. Bayer did not bother to […]

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