Consumer and digital groups in Europe and the U.S. call for a full ban on surveillance-based advertising
On 1 June, the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), that EDRi is part of, published a policy resolution on banning surveillance-based advertising. The invasive practices of collecting, sharing, and processing of individual data to deliver personalized advertising, has become the primary business model in the online advertising space. Surveillance advertising is promoted by the world’s largest technology companies, like Meta (Facebook) or Alphabet (Google), and is a key driver behind the spread of misinformation, undermining democratic discourse, economic and political equity, marketplace competition, privacy, public health, and basic consumer protections.
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Consumer and digital groups in Europe and the U.S. call for a full ban on surveillance-based advertising
On 1 June, the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), that EDRi is part of, published a policy resolution on banning surveillance-based advertising. The invasive practices of collecting, sharing, and processing of individual data to deliver personalized advertising, has become the primary business model in the online advertising space. Surveillance advertising is promoted by the world’s largest technology companies, like Meta (Facebook) or Alphabet (Google), and is a key driver behind the spread of misinformation, undermining democratic discourse, economic and political equity, marketplace competition, privacy, public health, and basic consumer protections.
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EDRi-gram, 25 May 2022
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we urge the European Parliament to make good use of the chance that the AI Act offers to regulate harmful border technologies and truly protect people on the move. We also dive deeper in the needy-greedy details of the European Commission's recent proposal for a ‘Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse’ which creates major risks to the privacy, security and integrity of private communications, not just in the EU, but globally.
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European perspectives: Fight against disinformation by improving standards in journalism and empowering citizens
Disinformation cannot be suppressed by only regulation and laws, it is necessary to empower the media and journalists, invest in quality and independent journalism, as well as in democratic political culture, media literacy and digital literacy of the EU citizens, concluded the Gong conference “European Perspectives: Impact of Disinformation on Health” Democracy and the Digital Environment”.
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Digital rights organisations call to dismiss the media exemption in the European Media Freedom Act
EDRi and our members Homo Digitalis, Access Now, EFN, Vrijschrift, and Državljan D are calling on the European Commissioners Vestager, Jourová and Breton to dismiss the ‘media exemption’ in the EMFA.
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EDRi-gram, 4 May 2022
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we urge the European Parliament to vote down the expansion of Europol's powers to prevent the enabling of mass surveillance. We also explore what could go wrong when a billionaire decides to buy one of the largest social media platforms. Join us in celebrating the success of EDRi member Defesa dos Direitos Digitais who got the Portuguese Constitutional Court to declare the unconstitutionality of the Portuguese data retention law.
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When the political party votes for you: Can we have a fair election with surveillance political advertising?
A new regulation on online advertising was proposed last December to address political ads, which identifies in one definition, two techniques to deliver political ads: targeting and amplification.
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Putting the brakes on Big Tech’s uncontrolled power
Will 2022 go down as the year the EU tamed Big Tech? In the very early morning hours of Saturday, 23 April, after 16 hours of final negotiations, EU lawmakers reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is certainly a watershed moment for our digital future. As the deal reached is a top-level political agreement, the final text of the law is yet to be released.
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EU negotiators approve good DSA, but more work is needed to build a better internet
Friday night’s political agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA) is a good first step towards protecting people’s rights on the internet and to some extent limiting the immense power that Big Tech companies have over people and democracies.
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EDRi-gram, 20 April 2022
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we look at how you can influence the AI Act in order to ban biometric mass surveillance across Europe. We also raise our concerns with the new Cybercrime Protocol which threatens to undermine our privacy to compensate for the rising powers of law enforcement authorities. Don't miss out to learn who the biggest data sinners of the last year are, join the German Big Brother Awards 2022. In previous years, the Big Brother Awards have placed a spotlight on threats to privacy and basic rights, including loyalty cards, credit scoring, toll cameras, colour photocopiers or mobile phone surveillance.
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EDRi-gram, 6 April 2022
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we look at what the facial recognition company Clearview AI is doing with our faces in the Ukrainian war and how we can put stop the private company from exploiting the war. We also urge the French Council Presidency to follow through on its promise to ensure that a final deal on the DSA prohibits the use of sensitive data, including the drawing of inferences about a person’s sensitive characteristics, to display advertisements.
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The Domino Effect of Internet Blocking in Romania
The Council of the European Union’s decision, which came out on 1 March, to block access to the media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, looking to stop the spread of disinformation, set forth a domino effect in Romania for internet blocking.
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EDRi-gram, 23 March 2022
In this edition of the EDRi-gram, we look at the leaked opinion of the Commission which sets off alarm bells for mass surveillance of private communications. The newly-revealed opinion confirms the fears that EDRi and 39 other civil society groups recently raised about the proposal which could destroy the integrity of private online communications across the EU, and set a dangerous precedent for the world. We are also urging for real solutions to the flaws of the law guarding our data protection and privacy. Though a new record of high fines based on the GDPR was issued in 2021, people still face barriers to exercising rights like access to remedy and benefiting from a harmonised enforcement mechanism.
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