Privacy and data protection

December 4, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics

Facial recognition and fundamental rights 101

This is the first post in a series about the fundamental rights impacts of facial recognition. Private companies and governments worldwide are already experimenting with facial recognition technology. Individuals, lawmakers, developers - and everyone in between - should be aware of the rise of facial recognition, and the risks it poses to rights to privacy, freedom, democracy and non-discrimination.

December 4, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices

Why privacy is particularly crucial for people with disabilities

With data being described as the “new currency”, many questions arise around privacy and data protection. We all leave increasingly larger data footprints as we use more, and more advanced technologies. We let apps access our phonebook contacts, track our habits and behavior, and know our preferences. At other times, we do not even have […]

December 4, 2019 · Blogs | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

Serbia: Unlawful facial recognition video surveillance in Belgrade

On 3 December 2019, EDRi member SHARE Foundation, together with two other organisations, published a policy brief concerning a new “smart video-surveillance system” in Belgrade. The brief highlights that the impact assessment of video surveillance on human rights, conducted by the Serbian Ministry of Interior did not meet the legal requirements, and the installation of […]

November 25, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

New Protocol on cybercrime: cutting red tape ≠ cutting human rights safeguards

From 20 to 22 November 2019, European Digital Rights (EDRi) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) took part in the Octopus Conference 2019 at the Council of Europe (CoE) to present the comments submitted by EFF, EDRi, IT-Pol Denmark and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on draft provisions of the Second Additional Protocol to […]

November 22, 2019 · Highlights | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

EU Council moves the ePrivacy reform forward – with major flaws in its position

November 22, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

ePrivacy: EU Member States push crucial reform on privacy norms close to a dead end

Today, on 22 November 2019, the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the European Union (COREPER) has rejected the Council’s position on a draft ePrivacy Regulation. “In this era of disinformation and privacy scandals, refusing to ensure strong privacy protections in the ePrivacy Regulation is a step backwards for the EU,” said Diego Naranjo, […]

November 20, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Dance. Enjoy. Share. With Care.

Anyone using cloud services should be aware of what the “cloud” is, what it is not, and how it can affect our privacy and security. Our information stored in “clouds” can be protected if the EU says “Yes!” to a strong ePrivacy Regulation, greater enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and drops the […]

November 20, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

ePrivacy hangs in the balance, but it’s not over yet…

Unless you have been living under a rock (read: outside the “Brussels bubble”) you will likely be aware of the long and winding road on which the proposed ePrivacy Regulation has been for the last three years. This is not unusual for a piece of European Union (EU) legislation – the 2018 General Data Protection […]

November 14, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Cross border access to data | Surveillance and data retention

“E-evidence”: Repairing the unrepairable

On 11 November 2019, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Birgit Sippel (S&D), Rapporteur for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) presented her draft Report, attempting to fix the many flaws of the European Commission’s “e-evidence” proposal. Has Sippel MEP been successful at repairing the unrepairable? The initial e-evidence proposal by […]

November 6, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Greece: The new data protection law raises concerns

On 29 August 2019, the much awaited new Greek data protection law came into force. Τhis law (4624/2019), implements both the provisions of the EU Law Enforcement Directive (LED, 2016/680) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into national level. However, since the first days after the law was adopted, a lot of criticism was […]

November 6, 2019 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Privacy and data protection | Disinformation and electoral interference | Equal access to the internet | Profiling practices

Twitter banning political ads – the tip of the iceberg

Twitter seems to have learnt the lessons of the 2016 US elections. After the revelation of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the link between the use of social media targeted political advertisement and the voting behaviour of specific groups of people has been explored and explained again and again. We now understand how social media platforms […]

November 6, 2019 · On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Danish data retention: Back to normal after major crisis

The Danish police and the Ministry of Justice consider access to electronic communications data to be a crucial tool for investigation and prosecution of criminal offences. Legal requirements for blanket data retention, which originally transposed the EU Data Retention Directive, are still in place in Denmark, despite the judgments from the Court of Justice of […]