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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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February 27, 2008

Germany: New basic right to privacy of computer systems

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The German Constitutional Court published on 27 February 2008 a landmark ruling about the constitutionality of secret online searches of computers by government agencies. The decision constitutes a new “basic right to the confidentiality and integrity of information-technological systems” as derived from the German Constitution. The journalist […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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December 5, 2018 · On the ground | Information democracy | Cross border access to data | Surveillance and data retention

EDRi members in joint protest against “surveillance zone” in Saxony

A new proposal for a surveillance law in the German state of Saxony is threatening to lead to abhorrent consequences on a stretch of Germany’s international border.

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April 22, 2009

Dutch Government on data retention

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Die Niederländische Regierung und die Vorratsdatenspeicherung | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1377] The answers of the Dutch Government to the additional set of questions sent by the Dutch Senate about the implementation of the Data Retention Directive reveal some interesting opinions. At the end of 2008 the Dutch Senate held a hearing […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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