December 16, 2009

Spain discusses shutting down websites without court order

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Spanien berät über die Schließung von Webseiten ohne richterliche Verfügungen| http://www.unwatched.org/node/1628] Despite the recent statements of Spanish culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde and the warnings received from Commissioner Reding, the Spanish Government announced at the beginning of December 2009 a proposal that may lead to shutting down websites that […]

Read more

July 15, 2015 · Blogs

ICANN considers banning privacy services

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is proposing a new Internet policy which comes at the expense of human rights, especially privacy and freedom of speech. The proposed rules are addressed to companies that provide WHOIS privacy/proxy services (which restrict access to domain registrant information) and limit their availability to individuals only, […]

Read more

 

January 28, 2004

Italy: five years data retention

On 28 January 2004, the Italian Lower House approved of a governmental decree-law on mandatory data retention by telephone and internet companies. Government issued the decree on 24 December 2003, without any prior parliamentary debate. All data about electronic communications must now be stored for a period of 5 years. According to the privacy-group ALCEI, […]

Read more

September 20, 2017 · Blogs

Secret documents reveal: BND attacked Tor and advises not to use it

The German spy agency BND developed a system to monitor the anonymity network Tor and warned federal agencies that its anonymity is “ineffective”. This is what emerges from a series of secret documents published by the German Netzpolitik blog. The spies handed a prototype of this technology over to the US National Security Agency (NSA), […]

Read more

 

October 24, 2012

Details on German State Trojan programme

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Details zum Deutschen Staatstrojaner | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.20_Details_zum_Deutschen_Staatstrojaner?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121024] Some documents spotted by the Annalist blog that were issued by the German Government in July 2012, within a parliamentary enquiry about expenditures by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, clearly show more details about what was revealed a year ago […]

Read more

June 18, 2008

EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, publicly supported the use of open source software in eGovernment, in a public speech at a seminar hosted by OpenForum Europe in Brussels on 10 June 2008. Kroes encouraged the public institutions to use open standards, underlining the positive example of […]

Read more

December 15, 2010

French law Loppsi 2 under debate again

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Neue Debatte über französisches Loppsi 2 Gesetz | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2442] The so-called Loppsi 2 draft law (loi d’orientation et de programmation pour la performance de la sécurité intérieure – law on guidelines and programming for the performance of internal security) is being discussed these days in the French General […]

Read more

June 4, 2014 · Blogs

Anniversary of Snowden revelations: The year we fight back

On 5 June 2013, the Guardian published Edward Snowden’s first documents. These showed that the NSA was using a secret court order to collect millions of customers’ phone calls of the US company Verizon. Snowden’s subsequent disclosures confirmed what many privacy activists were suspecting for a long time: that the US government and its allies […]

Read more

July 27, 2016 · Blogs

Massive lobby against personal communications security has started

Since 2002, European citizens’ freedom of communication, the security of our communications devices, and the protection of our personal data in the online world have been safeguarded by the so-called e-Privacy Directive. This Directive is now up for renewal. Unsurprisingly, after the big online companies launched probably the biggest ever lobbying campaign to undermine the […]

Read more

 

November 7, 2012

Irish DPA announces action on failed police self-regulation

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Fehlgeschlagene Selbstregulierung bei der Polizei: Irische Datenschutzbehörde kündigt Maßnahmen an | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.21_Fehlgeschlagene_Selbstregulierung_bei_der_Polizei?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121107] Apparently illegal abuses of the Irish police (“An Garda Síochána”) database show no sign of being brought to an end, despite repeated announcements on the issue by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC). Problems with the […]

Read more

November 7, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Cross border access to data | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Brussels up close – Experiences from the EDRi exchange programme

Learning and knowing abstractly how the EU works is one thing, seeing it up close and doing advocacy work right there is quite another! I am a Policy Advisor for the Austrian EDRi member organisation "epicenter.works – for digital rights" and, in October 2018, I spent two weeks with the EDRi office in Brussels. My aim was to get a better understanding of EU law making and advocacy.

Read more

 

July 5, 2006 · Blogs

Terrorist Finance Tracking Program raises privacy questions

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) On 22-23 June 2006, the New York Times published a story uncovering an international financial surveillance programme, called Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, run by the US authorities. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, the US Treasury Department and/or CIA starting getting access to international transfer data, available […]

Read more