June 8, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards

Statement on 4 Years of GDPR

When the GDPR became applicable on 25 May 2018, it was perceived as a watershed moment. Comments were somewhere between the EU getting serious about privacy and the internet breaking down at midnight. The past four years have shown that a law alone does not change business models that are based on the abuse of personal data and a culture within the privacy profession that is often focusing on covering up non-compliance. After a first moment of shock, large part of the data industry has learned to live with GDPR without actually changing practices. This is mainly done by simply ignoring users’ rights and getting away with it.

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November 26, 2020

Taking on Big Tech: The Fight for Digital Rights

Digital Freedom Fund’s first ever Speakers Series will run throughout November and December 2020, and will explore the key role of competition law in protecting digital rights. The series will feature preeminent speakers including Dr Niamh Dunne, Dr Miriam Buiten, and Dr Konstantinos Stylianou.

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March 15, 2023 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Who does the EU legislator listen to, if it isn’t the experts?

There's a huge gap between the advice given by experts on combatting child sexual abuse and the legislative proposal of the European Commission.

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February 17, 2021 · Blogs | Campaigns | Op-eds | Information democracy and participation | Privacy and surveillance | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Mass facial recognition is the apparatus of police states and must be regulated

Scientists have shown the inherent structural discrimination embedded in biometric systems. Facial analysis algorithms consistently judge black faces to be angrier and more threatening than white faces. We also know that biometric systems are designed with a purportedly “neutral” face and body in mind, which can exclude people with disabilities and anybody that does not conform to an arbitrary norm.

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May 25, 2021 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Freedom of expression online | Privacy and confidentiality

Antiterrorists in a bike shed – policy and politics of the Terrorist Content Regulation

The short story: an ill-fated law with dubious evidence base, targeting an important modern problem with poorly chosen measures, goes through an exhausting legislative process to be adopted without proper democratic scrutiny due to a procedural peculiarity. How did we manage to end up in this mess? And what does it tell us about the power of agenda setting the name of the “do something” doctrine?

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February 13, 2025 · Blogs | Information democracy and participation | Platform regulation

The Digital Services Coordinator Database: Tracking DSA investigations into Big Tech

EDRi has launched its Digital Services Coordinator Database which provides a comprehensive overview of all enforcement authorities and the cases they have taken against online platforms under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

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December 14, 2022 · Blogs | Just and open internet and technologies | Alternatives to dominant digital services | Disinformation and electoral interference | Freedom of expression online | Online tracking industry / AdTech | Platform regulation

Everyone is on Mastodon now, but why?

Millions of people and organisations are flocking to Mastodon in the wake of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. EDRi is among those who recently started using the decentralised and free social network. What does Mastodon do better, and why does it get digital rights groups all excited?

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September 28, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Does Google accuse you of child abuse? Impossible! Right?

The legislator in Europe is working on a proposal that could force companies to scan all messages we exchange for child sexual abuse material. The goal is noble but it can very easily go wrong. And if things go wrong, you might suddenly be accused of sexually abusing children.

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December 14, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and surveillance | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices

Back to the Future: Activism, the copyright Directive and lessons for the present

The Copyright Directive marked a key moment in internet history. Civil society, and EDRi in particular, have reflected on the role we played in the political debate and what would that mean for future digital policy fights. In this blogpost, we look back to assess the success of the strategies we adopted and what are the takeaways we should keep in mind when challenging current human rights threats like chat control and facial recognition.

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October 9, 2020 · Blogs | Information democracy and participation | Disinformation and electoral interference | Freedom of expression online | Online tracking industry / AdTech | Transparency

Towards a digital Europe we want: the European Democracy Action Plan

On 14 September, EDRi submitted its response to the European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP) consultation. The EDAP, echoing the existing EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, focuses on preserving European democracies. The EDAP intends to address numerous challenges such as shrinking civic space, electoral interference, disinformation and the difficulties faced by journalists.

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June 2, 2021 · Blogs | Information democracy and participation | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

The urgent need to #reclaimyourface

The rise of automated video surveillance is often touted as a quick, easy, and efficient solution to complex societal problems. In reality, roll-outs of facial recognition and other biometric mass surveillance tools constitute a systematic invasion into people’s fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. Like with uses of toxic chemicals, these toxic uses of biometric surveillance technologies need to be banned across Europe.

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September 7, 2022 · Blogs | Position papers | Privacy and surveillance | Biometrics | Cross border access to data | Surveillance and data retention

Position Paper: New EU law amplifies risks of state over-reach and mass surveillance

The EDRi network published its position paper on the proposed Regulation on automated data exchange for police cooperation (“Prüm II”). The European Commission’s Prüm II proposal fails to put in place vital safeguards designed to protect all of us from state overreach and authoritarian mass surveillance practices. In the worst case scenario, we may no longer be able to walk freely on our streets as the new law would treat large parts of the population as a criminal before proven otherwise.

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