January 18, 2006

Comparison between US and European anti-terror policies

In a report titled ” Threatening the Open Society: Comparing Anti-terror Policies and Strategies in the U.S. and Europe” and released on 13 December 2005, Privacy International compared the anti-terrorism approaches in the U.S. with those in Europe. The report finds that on every policy involving mass surveillance of its citizens, the EU is prepared […]

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February 2, 2006

French anti-terrorism law not anti-constitutional

The French constitutional council judged on 19 January 2006, that the new national anti-terrorism law, submitted by the French Senators, was not anti-constitutional. The Senators were particularly concerned with two provisions of this law. The first one was the provision allowing the police to obtain communication data without any judicial order, in order to “prevent […]

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February 15, 2006

French Big Brother Awards 2006

The 6th edition of the French Big Brother Awards taking place in Paris on 3 February has chosen the following in the 5 different award sections, for causing the most damage to personal privacy. The Orwell Award for State official – the winner was Jean-Michel Charpin, Directeur de l’Insee (INES) for his participation in the […]

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April 12, 2006

UK teachers are spied in classrooms

Teachers protest against the installation of 50 CCTV systems with microphones in UK schools, used as surveillance measures by the school management. While observation in class was supposed to help teachers in improving their performances, the headmasters, who have also used two-way mirrors to survey the teachers, grade them according to the way they perform […]

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May 10, 2006

Public debate on draft anti-terror act in Denmark

On May 10 2006, a public hearing was held in the Danish Parliament on a new proposal for an anti-terror act including surveillance measures. The proposed law may increase camera surveillance, obliges carriers to store passenger data for one year and introduces new measures for the intelligence service. According to the proposal, the intelligence service […]

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September 13, 2006

EU Green paper on surveillance technology

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The European Commission (EC) has adopted a green paper on surveillance technology used by the civil society in the fight against terrorism, that will be open for public consultation until the end of this year. The green paper, resulted from a public conference (Public-Private Security Dialogue: Detection […]

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October 25, 2006

Illegal video surveillance in Austria

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) During Infolaw legal forum on 17 October, Margot Artner, a Viennese lawyer, expressed concerns regarding the existence of about 100 000 illegal monitoring systems with recording functions in Austria. The estimation was based on information obtained from vendors of monitoring software and installing technicians. Artner has waited […]

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October 10, 2007

EDRI Campaign on CoE Recommendation Failing to Uphold Freedom of Expression

On October 10, 2007, EDRI issued a statement to express its serious concerns over a new Council of Europe Recommendation on ‘promoting freedom of expression and information in the new information and communications environment’. As other related instruments are currently in preparation by the CoE, EDRI calls for NGOs and groups from all over the […]

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October 17, 2007

List of Signatories-New Council of Europe Recommendation fails to uphold online freedom of expression

Act Now to Protect Freedom of Expression Online: – Sign up in support to this EDRI statement (NGOs and groups from non CoE member States also welcome) Read EDRI Statement: – Čeština : Výzva k akci: Doporučení Rady Evropy neochrání svobodu slova – Deutsch: Die neue Empfehlung des Europarates hält die freie Meinungsäußerung online nicht […]

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January 16, 2008

PI: Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World 2007

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) UK-based human rights group Privacy International (PI) published at the end of last year the 2007 ranking assessment of the state of privacy in 47 countries, including all European Union member states. The raking is based on the Privacy & Human Rights reports produced since 1997 by […]

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January 30, 2008

Key privacy concerns in Denmark 2007

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) a. Data Retention – a reality 15 September 2007 – data retention became a reality in Denmark. The administrative order, which sets the scope and conditions for data retention, was approved on 28 September 2006 with an implementation deadline of one year. The order, which was drafted […]

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January 30, 2008

Key privacy concerns in Czech Republik 2007

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Last year has seen an increased number attempts from government bodies to extend their powers and make it easier to access people’s private information. To name a few, there were legal proposals to increase the number of agencies authorized to access and process electronic communication data collected […]

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