October 13, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Europe’s governments win the Big Brother Awards 2017 for opening the pandora’s box of surveillance

On Friday 13 October, the annual Belgian Big Brother Awards – a negative prize for the worst privacy abuser of the year – took place in Brussels. The jury awarded the European trend of state hacking, European Digital Right’s (EDRi) nomination, the title of the ultimate privacy villain. The public voted Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) […]

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December 4, 2018 · On the ground | Open letters | Information democracy | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Serbian Data Protection Commissioner: NGOs call for transparency

Today, on 4 December, eight digital rights organisations from across Europe sent a letter to the National Assembly of Serbia, asking for a transparent process of the selection of the country’s new Data Protection Commissioner.

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December 5, 2018 · Open letters | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

Civil society calls Council to adopt ePrivacy now

EDRi has joined a letter of 30 representatives from civil society and online industry, to the Ministers in the Telecoms Council, to express the wide support for the ePrivacy Regulation. The letter describes the clear and urgent need to strengthen privacy and security of electronic communications in the online environment, especially in the wake of […]

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October 18, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

Extending the use of eID to online platforms – risks to privacy?

On 10 October 2017, the European Commission published the “draft principles and guidance on eID interoperability for online platforms” on the electronic Identification And Trust Services (eIDAS) observatory. Building on the eIDAS Regulation, the Commission would like to extend the scope of use for the eIDs to online platforms, in addition to public services. This […]

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December 5, 2018 · Open letters | Information democracy | Freedom of expression online

Terrorist Content Regulation: Civil rights groups raise major concerns

On 4 December 2018, a coalition of 31 civil society organisations published a letter that raises significant concerns regarding the proposal for a Regulation to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online. The letter was addressed to the EU Member States’ Home Affairs Ministers, ahead of their meeting on 6 December.

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February 12, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Cross border access to data | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Double legality check in e-evidence: Bye bye “direct data requests”

After having tabled some 600 additional amendments, members of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) are still discussing the conditions under which law enforcement authorities in the EU should access data for their criminal investigations in cross-border cases. One of the key areas of debate is the involvement of a second authority in […]

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October 19, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Digital rights in trade agreements | Platform regulation | Privacy and confidentiality

Euro-parliamentarians say a clear “no” to the anti-privacy lobby

On 19 October, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted on the proposed e-Privacy Regulation. The Committee voted in favour of measures defending privacy, security and competition for phone and internet services. Despite a huge lobbying effort to water down the proposal, the Committee voted for clear, privacy-friendly rules. […]

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August 29, 2016 · Blogs

Net neutrality wins in Europe!

New net neutrality guidelines from the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) confirm strong protection for net neutrality, and for the free and open internet, in the European Union.  Europe is now a global standard-setter in the defence of the open, competitive and neutral internet. We congratulate BEREC on its diligent work, its […]

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October 20, 2017 · Blogs | Information democracy | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Platform regulation

EDRi writes to EU Commissioner Gabriel about tackling illegal content online

On 28 September 2017, the European Commission published a Communication on “Tackling Illegal Content Online: Towards an enhanced responsibility of online platforms”. In order to be constructive and support the European Commission in developing a balanced, rights-friendly and harmonised approach to deal with illegal content online in the future, EDRi has written a letter to […]

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September 8, 2016 · Blogs

European Court Opinion: Canada PNR deal cannot be signed

Today, on 8 September 2016, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave his Opinion confirming that the agreement between EU and Canada to share Passenger Name Records (PNR) data is not fully in compliance with European law. It’s shocking to note that all the EU’s others PNR instruments […]

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December 22, 2011

US lobbying against draft Data Protection Regulation

Right at the end of the inter-service consultation process in the European Commission (the almost final step before a legislative proposal is launched), the United States Department of Commerce launched a significant lobbying campaign against the leaked draft proposal for a Data Protection Regulation. The campaign included high-level phone calls from senior figures in the […]

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January 16, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

EU Member States willing to retain illegal data retention

With its judgments in April 2014 (Digital Rights Ireland ) and December 2016 (Tele2 ), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that blanket data retention was illegal under EU law. Rather than repealing their illegal data retention laws, EU Member States have instead adopted a tactic of ignoring the highest court […]

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