Privacy and data protection
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The European Commission rightly decides to defend citizens’ privacy in trade discussions
On 31 January 2018, the European Commission adopted horizontal clauses on data flows, data protection and privacy in trade deals. On 9 February, these provisions were leaked.
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Data protection – time for action
On 24 January 2018, the European Commission (EC) published a Communication on the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), entering into force on 25 May 2018: “Stronger protection, new opportunities”.
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Germany: Constitutional complaint against intelligence agency BND
EDRi observer Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) has filed a constitutional complaint against surveillance by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). A new law that the German Parliament passed in October 2016 allows the BND to spy on foreign journalists. This destroys trust between journalists and their sources precisely in places where investigative journalism is […]
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Smashing the law without breaking it: A Commission guide
How to create a general monitoring obligation without creating a general monitoring obligation? That is the question that the Commission has been trying to answer with the Article 13 of its “Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market”. It aims at solving the issue of a so-called “value gap”, that is […]
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European Parliament – fighting terrorism with closed-door secrecy
The European Parliament’s Special Committee on Terrorism (TERR) was established on 6 July 2017, for a renewable twelve-month mandate. The Committee was created with the ambitious aim of addressing ostensible practical and legislative deficiencies in the fight against terrorism across the European Union (EU) and with international actors.
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Can we ensure EU terrorism policies respect human rights?
During 2017, the European Union (EU) increased its arsenal its “fight against terrorism”, namely by adopting a Directive on combating terrorism and by setting up a Special Committee in the European Parliament. In partnership with the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI), the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the […]
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ENDitorial: Living as if being at an airport
The internet is starting to look more and more like an airport. Not only because of the ubiquitous surveillance, but also in the way that advertising is trying to steal our attention. Should we start working on a right to not be addressed?
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UN Security Council mandates worldwide air traveller profiling
In the name of “preventing, detecting and investigating terrorist offenses and related travel”, all United Nations (UN) Member States should develop systems for processing and analysing Passenger Name Record (PNR), Advance Passenger Information (API) and “fingerprints, photographs, facial recognition, and other relevant identifying biometric data”, according to a UN Security Council resolution (no. 2396) on […]
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Press release: 6th annual Privacy Camp takes place on 23 January 2018
Tomorrow, on 23 January 2018, Privacy Camp brings together civil society, policy-makers and academia to discuss problems for human rights in the digital environment. In the face of what some have noted as a “shrinking civic space” for collective action, the event provides a platform for experts from across these domains to discuss and develop […]
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EU-Japan trade agreement not compatible with EU data protection
The EU and Japan have announced the conclusion of the final discussions on a trade agreement, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Regarding cross-border data flows and data protection, the European Commission’s press release states that recent reforms of their respective privacy legislation offer new opportunities to facilitate data exchanges, including through a simultaneous finding […]
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ePrivacy proposal undermined by EU Member States
The discussions on the ePrivacy Regulation continue in the European Union (EU) legislative process. They were on hold for a few weeks because of ongoing negotiations on the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) – another big “telecoms” file that the Council of the European Union is working on.
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Commission claims that general monitoring is not general monitoring
Will everything we do on the internet be monitored and checked against by a non-transparent mechanism that decides what can be published? It is a real threat, and currently it is coming from an area that patently does not require such draconian measures: EU copyright law. This threat is a peculiar one, because there are […]
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