October 4, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Digital rights in trade agreements | Freedom of expression online | Privacy and confidentiality

TiSA impact assessment report ignores crucial human rights concerns

In 2013, the European Commission decided to subject the draft Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) to a Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) in support of the negotiations. The Final Report, which was published in July 2017, fails to address several key fundamental rights concerns.

Read more

 

February 27, 2004

EU to promote research track & trace technology

According to a new Communication on the research into security, the European Commission plans to fund research on “tagging, tracking and tracing devices … that improve the capability to locate, identify and follow the movement of mobile assets, goods and persons”. The Commission announces the launch of a new funding program entitled ‘Enhancement of the […]

Read more

August 31, 2016 · Blogs

Towards a corporate copyright reform in the EU?

On 24 August, Statewatch leaked the draft Impact Assessment (IA) of the European Commission (EC) on the copyright reform. Impact Assessments are an essential part in the decision making process. They are where the EC analyses the different options available when considering a policy initiative. Ahead of the official presentation of the final IA in […]

Read more

 

July 18, 2007

Media and telecom companies oppose CISAC proposal

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) On 10 July 2007, the EU Commission received a letter from a large group including some of Europe’s biggest media groups and telecom companies urging for the rejection of an offer made by EU national royalty-collecting societies to settle an anti-trust case. The Commission started examining a […]

Read more

December 14, 2011

European Parliament: raising awareness on "self"-regulation

What better way to raise awareness on private policing on the Internet than to organise a workshop in the European Parliament and let the stakeholders answer the question: “Self-regulation: Should online companies police the internet?” On 7 December 2011 MEP Marietje Schaake organized, with support from EDRi, an event on this issue. Among the speakers […]

Read more

December 5, 2012 · Blogs

Danish opposition wants to abandon the illegal medicine site blocking

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Dänemark: Opposition will Netzsperren gegen illegalen Medikamentenhandel aufgeben | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.23_Daenemark_Opposition_will_Netzsperren_gegen_illegalen_Medikamentenhandel_aufgeben?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121205] A majority outside the Danish government parties proposes to abandon blocking access to websites selling illegal medicine. The law (a new revision of the laws regulating selling of medicine etc.) allowing blocking of these sites was passed in […]

Read more

July 16, 2014 · Blogs

ENDitorial: Commission Communication on IP Enforcement

On 1 July, 2014, the European Commission launched an oddly-named Communication entitled “Towards a renewed consensus on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.” It is good to see the Commission being ambitious, but renewing something that never existed appears to be quite challenging. The document opens by referring to the impressive statistic that a “recent […]

Read more

 

November 15, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Estonian eID cryptography mess – 750000 cards compromised

In 2017, a flaw causing vulnerabilities in millions of encryption keys, including national Estonian electronic ID (eID) cards, was discovered. A month and a half after the discovery, the Estonian Police publicly announced the vulnerability, but stated that the eID cards “are completely secure”.

Read more

 

September 20, 2016 · Blogs

ENDitorial: “Hate speech”: Who’s the German for hypocrisy

German interior minister Thomas De Maizière has a simple solution for “hate speech”. He believes that other people should stop it. He believes that someone (else) should do something. In particular, he is very keen that American internet companies should become much more involved in policing, suppressing and punishing what they consider to be “hate […]

Read more

 

February 24, 2010

First decision in the Italian criminal case against Google executives

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Erstes Urteil im italienischen Strafverfahren gegen Google-Führungskräfte | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1721] Today, 24 February 2010, the Court of Milan made public the decision in the criminal trial against four Google executives, charged of defamation and illegal personal data handling in relationship to the publication on the video sharing platform of […]

Read more

September 13, 2006

TOR servers seized in Germany

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The public prosecutor’s office of Konstanz, Germany raided, during the last weekend some computing centres and seized several servers that were running copies of TOR, a well known software used for the anonymisation of the Internet usage. The action was related to a child pornography case, and, […]

Read more

January 16, 2013 · Blogs

Is the Commission’s report on Swift agreement biased?

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [SWIFT: Ist der Bericht der Kommission inkorrekt? | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.1_SWIFT_Ist_der_Bericht_der_Kommission_inkorrekt?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130125] The very controversial TFTF (Terrorist financing tracking programme or Swift Agreement) through which the European and US law enforcement authorities are exchanging financial personal information of suspected terrorists, is covered by two review boards (one American and another one […]

Read more