July 27, 2016 · Blogs

More Copyfails or meaningful improvements?

The EU will soon be reforming its copyright rules. The European Commission is planning to present its proposal on 21 September 2016. To succeed in updating the copyright rules in a way that respects the needs of both the users and creators of cultural goods, we believe both European citizens and policy makers should better […]

Read more

 

December 15, 2021 · Blogs | Campaigns | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics

Reclaim Your Face impact in 2021

A sturdy coalition, research reports, investigations, coordination actions and gathering amazing political support at national and EU level. This was 2021 for the Reclaim Your Face coalition – a year that, despite happening in a pandemic – showed what the power of a united front looks like.

Read more

 

July 5, 2006 · Blogs

Terrorist Finance Tracking Program raises privacy questions

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) On 22-23 June 2006, the New York Times published a story uncovering an international financial surveillance programme, called Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, run by the US authorities. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, the US Treasury Department and/or CIA starting getting access to international transfer data, available […]

Read more

June 18, 2014 · Blogs

Germany opens investigation on Merkel’s phone tap

Germany’s federal prosecutor annouced on 11 June 2014 that it has opened a formal investigation into the alleged monitoring of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone by the US’s National Security Agency (NSA). The German government has reportedly announced its support to the investigation. Although Chancellor Merkel has asked the US President Barack Obama in person […]

Read more

January 28, 2009

Romania: Is really privacy a topic in the public debate?

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Privacy is a sporadic keyword in the Romanian mass-media. And even less used in public speech. Becoming an ideal motivation only when talking about some local stars’ private life and their juicy intricacies, the real debate on the most important issues lacks completely. The Human Rights Committees […]

Read more

January 13, 2010

Hungary introduces mandatory open standards for public institutions

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Ungarn führt verbindliche Open Standards für öffentliche Institutionen ein | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1652] The Hungarian Parliament decided at the end of 2009 to make open standards mandatory for communications between public institutions, utility companies and citizens through the central governmental system. The Parliament amended Act LX of 2009 on electronic […]

Read more

November 21, 2012

CleanIT looking for the question that it was seeking an answer to

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [CleanIT oder Wie war noch mal die Frage? | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.22_CleanIT_oder_Wie_war_noch_mal_die_Frage?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121107] Few people know that CleanIT was born from another failed project – the European Commission-led “dialogue on illegal online content”. In that “dialogue”, the European Commission (DG HOME) sought to persuade Internet hosting companies to delete websites containing […]

Read more

December 1, 2021 · Blogs | Press releases | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

New German government calls for European ban on biometric mass surveillance

The newly-agreed German government coalition has called for a Europe-wide ban on public facial recognition and other biometric surveillance. This echoes the core demands of the Reclaim Your Face campaign which EDRi has co-led since 2020, through which over 65 civil society groups ask the EU and their national governments to outlaw biometric data mass surveillance.

Read more

 

November 30, 2011

Proposed US-EU PNR Agreement made public

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Details zum geplanten US-EU PNR-Abkommen durchgesickert | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.23_Details_zum_geplanten_US_EU_PNR_Abkommen_durchgesickert?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20111130] On 17 November 2011, U.S. and EU officials initialled a proposed agreement to authorize airlines to forward passenger name record (PNR) data to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Although the agreement cannot take effect without the approval of […]

Read more

July 4, 2007

Final agreements between EU and USA on PNR and SWIFT

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) After a long and difficult period of negotiations, on 28-29 June 2007, final agreements were reached between EU and USA on the data regarding European financial transactions operated by Belgian consortium SWIFT and on the passenger name records (PNR) issue respectively. Regarding the access to financial data […]

Read more

August 12, 2015 · Blogs

Facebook patent: Lending based on social connections

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has granted Facebook a patent which could allow “authenticating an individual for access to information or service based on that individual’s social network.” The main use for this technology is to allegedly prevent members of a network from sending spam to other members with whom they aren’t […]

Read more

 

February 12, 2020 · Blogs | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Transparency

Cloud extraction: A deep dive on secret mass data collection tech

Mobile phones remain the most frequently used and most important digital source for law enforcement investigations. Yet it is not just what is physically stored on the phone that law enforcement are after, but what can be accessed from it, primarily data stored in the “cloud”. This is why law enforcement is turning to “cloud […]

Read more