October 23, 2013 · Blogs

After 3 Years: French Authority Hadopi Keeps Proving Its Uselessness

After three years of existence, Hadopi French authority in charge with the infamous three-strikes gradual response system, has succeeded in proving nothing but a large waste of public money. To mark its 3-year anniversary, Hadopi has issued its activity report which shows that, to the day, it has succeeded in ordering 1 sole Internet disconnection […]

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February 8, 2017 · Blogs

ENDitorial: Fake news about fake news being news

We have heard a lot about fake news over recent months. We have heard urgent calls for action from politicians to deal with this new problem – governments should regulate truth, Facebook should regulate truth, new ministries of truth should regulate the truth. The political world is clear – somebody should do something, quickly! In […]

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November 20, 2013 · Blogs

Bogus hearing of the UK intelligence agencies

On 7 November 2013, the heads of the three UK internal and foreign intelligence agencies, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, were publicly heard by UK’s secretive intelligence and security committee (ISC) concerning Snowden’s leaks regarding the mass surveillance by US and UK intelligence. Although this was a historical even being the first instance when heads of […]

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April 11, 2012

Draft Online Safety Bill to block pornographic sites in UK

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [UK: Gesetz über Online-Sicherheit zur Sperre pornografischer Seiten in Vorbereitung | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.7_UK_Gesetz_ueber_Online-Sicherheit_zur_Sperre_pornografischer_Seiten_in_Vorbereitungpk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120411] A new bill proposed to the House of Lords by Baroness Howe of Ildicote, requires ISPs and mobile operators to “provide a service that excludes pornographic images” and electronic device manufacturers to include ways to filter […]

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April 11, 2012

ENDItorial: Searching for a Google strategy?

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ENDitorial: Auf der Suche nach einer Google-Strategie | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.7_ENDitorial?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120411] The more time passes, the more difficult it is to explain the love-hate relationship between European conservatives and Google. Every new policy, both on European and national levels, appears on the surface to be anti-Google but, on closer inspection, […]

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January 14, 2015 · Blogs

Googling your brain: latest “data protection” proposals from Council

When the European Commission proposed its Data Protection Directive in 1995, it made the decision not to give the EU Member States the option to opt out of its profiling (“automated decision-making”) provisions. Even in the days before “big data” and rampant mass surveillance, the dangers of using personal data to make decisions based on […]

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February 11, 2015 · Blogs

UK court finds secret spying docs made surveillance illegal

Several human rights groups are celebrating a major victory against the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, as the UK surveillance tribunal ruled on 6 February that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) acted unlawfully in accessing millions of private communications collected by the National Security Agency […]

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July 15, 2009

Sweden obliged by EU to implement data retention directive

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [EU zwingt Schweden, die Richtlinie zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung umzusetzen | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1470] The European Commission has decided to take the Swedish Government to the European court of Justice for failing to implement the data retention directive in a reasonable time frame. The Swedish Data Retention Directive implementation was supported by […]

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February 11, 2015 · Blogs

Facing a challenge – understanding Facebook’s opt-out instructions

Following Facebook’s new changes in its terms of service, the company has provided a public relations pitch about “your information” and how Facebook “respects the choices that you make” about the advertising that you see. In particular, it says “That’s why Facebook respects the choices you make about the ads you see, across every device. […]

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February 11, 2015 · Blogs

Yet another internet blocking law in Turkey

This article is also available in: Deutsch: Neues Gesetz über Internetsperren in der Türkei In recent years, online censorship and the deteriorating situation regarding the freedom of speech has raised serious concerns in Turkey. The large majority of the traditional mainstream media is either directly or indirectly under the government control, and the Internet remains one […]

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July 29, 2009

Russian copyright law will apply to news reports

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Russisches Urheberrechtsgesetz wird für Nachrichtenberichte gelten | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1486] A new modification in the Russian copyright legislation was drafted by the Government in order to extend the protection to news reports. The new draft was pushed by the biggest Russian news agencies which were claiming that other regional and […]

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January 31, 2007

European Commission gets new complaints on Vista

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) A group of Microsoft’s rivals has filed a complaint against the Seattle-based company for using its new product Vista, under release these days, to unfairly continue and even strengthen its dominant position on the market. The group including IBM, Nokia, RealNetworks, Sun Microsystems, Adobe, Corel, Opera, Oracle, […]

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