April 8, 2015 · Blogs

Social media platforms blocked again in Turkey

Turkish authorities ordered access to 166 websites, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, to be blocked after photos of a hostage crisis that ended with the death of a government prosecutor were circulated in the social media platforms. On 31 March 2015, in Istanbul’s courthouse, two militants took Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage. He was the prosecutor […]

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April 8, 2015 · Blogs

Report says Facebook tracking breaches EU law

On 31 March 2015, researchers of the University of Leuven and Vrije Univeristeit Brussel, Belgium, issued a report claiming that Facebook tracks online activity both of its users and non-users. According to the report, which was commissioned by the Belgian Privacy Commission, this type of tracking contravenes EU online privacy laws. Facebook uses a tracking […]

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July 18, 2012

German Federal Supreme Court rules in the RapidShare case

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Deutscher Bundesgerichtshof: Entscheidung im Fall RapidShare | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.14_Deutscher_Bundesgerichtshof_Entscheidung_im_Fall_RapidShare?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120718] A file-hosting site could be partially liable for the content uploaded by others in Germany. In a case brought to court by video games company Atari which accused file-sharing site RapidShare of unlawfully providing access to one of its games, […]

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March 26, 2014 · Blogs

Macedonia bans gambling, raises concern over Internet censorship

Macedonia’s government has announced plans to block access to foreign gambling sites in an effort to prevent an outflow of capital. The ban will occur at some point in March and follows a change in the Law of Games and Chance adopted on the 28 December 2013. Far from banning gambling outright – the Macedonian […]

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September 25, 2013 · Blogs

FBI was controlling servers located in France

The FBI admitted on 12 September 2013 that, in late July, it had secretly taken control of some servers located in France in order to plant a malware within a police action. The agency has introduced the spyware on web pages hosted by Freedom Hosting, meant for Tor anonymization network. The hoster had been exposed since 2011 by activists […]

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October 10, 2012

Turkish plans to use IDs for accessing the Internet

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Türkei plant eindeutige Identifizierung beim Zugang zum Internet | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.19_Tuerkei_plant_eindeutige_Identifizierung_beim_Zugang_zum_Internet?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121010] The party in power has been dreaming of following and blacklisting Internet users for a long time by making it obligatory to enter ID number and a password to access the Internet. Such applications are already in force […]

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June 4, 2008

Deutsche Telekom under investigation for spying on its employees

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The giant German telecommunication company is under investigation by national prosecutors for a presumed breach of privacy, after having spied on the phone calls of its managers, journalists and even board members. According to Der Spiegel newspaper, the former monopoly incumbent operator – still 31.7% owned by […]

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June 4, 2014 · Blogs

Social media in key role in the Balkans floods – incited censorship

In late May 2014, the Balkans were hit by disastrous floods. Internet users began commenting and sharing information on social networks and blogs about the floods, but also criticised the government’s  response to the disaster and relief efforts in certain areas. Social networks served as a channel quick sharing of information. They were in a […]

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October 4, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Platform regulation | Privacy and confidentiality | Transparency

ENDitorial: Tinder and me: My life, my business

Tinder is one of the many online dating companies of the Match Group. Launched in 2012, Tinder started being profitable as of 2015, greatly thanks to people’s personal data. On 3 March 2017, journalist Judith Duportail asked Tinder to send her all her personal data they had collected, including her “desirability score”, which is composed […]

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August 2, 2006

The French copyright law changed by the Constitutional Council

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The French Constitutional Council ruled on the most controversial copyright and related rights law, known as DADVSI law, concluding that some provisions of the law “violated the constitutional protections of property”. The Council has considered as unconstitutional several provisions adopted by the French Parliament that were meant […]

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August 1, 2007

UK Government rejects the extension of the copyright term for performers

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) To the big disappointment of the music industry, the UK Government refused to promote at the EU level, the extension of the presently 50-year copyright term for performers. According to the EU rules, the copyright period for song writers and their families covers their entire lives plus […]

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January 18, 2012

Belarus strongly censors the Internet

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Weißrussland übt starke Internetzensur aus | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.1_Weissrussland_uebt_starke_Internetzensur_aus?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120127] — Article corrected on 23.01.2012—- 6 January 2012 saw the application of the Belarusian law imposing even more restrictions on online free expression in a country that is already viewed as a dictatorship. Thus, a new law is enacting the sanctions […]

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