June 19, 2013 · Blogs

The German Parliament urges the government to limit software patents

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Deutscher Bundestag drängt auf Begrenzung von Software-Patenten | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.12_Deutscher_Bundestag_draengt_auf_Begrenzung_von_Software-Patenten?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130619] On 7 June 2013, the German Parliament unanimously decided upon a joint motion to limit software patents urging the government to take measures in this sense. In the German MPs’ opinion, supported by several SME associations, software should be […]

Read more

November 7, 2012 · Blogs

ENDitorial: The Microsoft IE10 Do Not Track “controversy”

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ENDitorial: Die Microsoft IE10 Do-Not-Track-“Kontroverse” | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.21_ENDitorial_Die_Microsoft_IE10_Do-Not-Track-Kontroverse?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121107] With online tracking of consumers becoming more and more sophisticated, uneasiness about this technology is growing. In Europe, there are rules on tracking users for behavioural advertising, where users generally need to consent to being tracked. Elsewhere in the world, there […]

Read more

July 13, 2011 · Blogs

ENDitorial: Why it was good to propose web blocking for child abuse images

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ENDitorial: Warum es gut war, Netzsperren vorzuschlagen | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.14_ENDitorial_Warum_es_gut_war_Netzsperren_vorzuschlagen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20110721] Now that the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee has voted again (yesterday, 12 July 2011, by 50 votes to zero) against the introduction of mandatory EU-wide Internet blocking, it is worth considering the huge value of the German blocking […]

Read more

May 18, 2016 · Blogs

Big Brother Awards Germany 2016

The annual gala for the German Big Brother Awards (BBA), organised by EDRi member Digitalcourage, was held on 22 April 2016 in Bielefeld, Germany. English-language coverage of the event was stepped up this year. While English translations of most of the laudations have been available on the website in previous years, this year Digitalcourage’s interpreter […]

Read more

 

February 12, 2014 · Blogs

German govt and intelligence agencies face penal charges for spying

Penal charges against the German government and US and UK secret services have been filed on 3 February 2014 by three German NGOs – the International League for Human Rights, Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and Digitalcourage. (Digitalcourage and CCC are EDRi members) The criminal complaint is about mass surveillance, illegal covert intelligence activities, violations of […]

Read more

April 25, 2012

ENDitorial: The day the HADOPI stream flowed into the Pirate Bay

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ENDitorial: Der Tag, an dem sich der Hadopi-Strom in die Piratenbucht ergoß | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.8_ENDitorial?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120507] On 16 April 2012, the HADOPI Authority published a study on economic models of streaming and downloading services and websites of illegal content (notwithstanding the fact that the content is legal). Included in the […]

Read more

March 13, 2019 · Blogs | Information democracy | Privacy and data protection | Online tracking industry / AdTech | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices

The art of dodging questions – Facebook’s privacy policies

Remember in April 2018, after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, we sent a series of 13 questions to Facebook about their users’ data exploitation policy. Months later, Facebook got back to us with answers. Here is a critical analysis of their response. Recognising people’s face without biometric data? The first questions (1a and 1b) related […]

Read more

 

February 23, 2011

The French supreme court recognizes hosting status of Web 2.0 services

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Französisches Höchstgericht bestätigt Hosting-Status von Web 2.0 Diensten | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.4_Franz%C3%B6sisches_Gericht_erkennt_Status_von_Webdiensten_an] On 17 February 2011 the French Court of Cassation recognized the hosting status of Dailymotion and Fuzz.fr. The court also confirmed, in relation to the Amen website case, that the judges had to verify that the content withdrawal […]

Read more

September 23, 2015 · Blogs

Germany dreams of security: An ID for every “thing” connected

New infrastructures often resemble untapped oil sources – everyone tries to get in as early as possible in order to grab the biggest share. The German newspaper Die Zeit Online revealed in September that a chip manufacturer has apparently been going to great lengths to ensure a large share of the growing market of the […]

Read more

 

January 18, 2012 · Blogs

Dutch Internet providers forced to block The Pirate Bay

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Niederländische ISPs zur Sperre von The Pirate Bay gezwungen | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.1_Niederlaendische_ISPs_zur_Sperre_von_The_Pirate_Bay_gezwungen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120127] In its judgement of 11 January 2012, the Court of The Hague granted Dutch copyright enforcement organisation Brein’s request to order Dutch internet providers Ziggo and XS4ALL to block access to The Pirate Bay. This is the […]

Read more

March 23, 2016 · Blogs

The lobby-tomy 3: who are lobbying?

Did you know that there are 340,000 dentists in Europe? And that they lobby about privacy? Who else lobbies? How do parties/groups create coalitions to persuade policy makers? What’s the mayor of Amsterdam doing in Brussels? In this blog on the privacy lobby we describe the different parties that are lobbying. The new European data […]

Read more

 

June 17, 2009

The dawning of Internet censorship in Germany

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Die Internetzensur dräut über Deutschland | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1430] Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party – seems united in its decision: On 18 June 2009, the German Parliament is to vote on the […]

Read more