Results for node/retention

March 11, 2020 · On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Cross border access to data | Privacy and confidentiality | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Germany: Invading refugees’ phones – security or population control?

In its new study, EDRi member Society for Civil Rights (GFF) examines how German authorities sniff out refugees’ phones. The aim of “data carrier evaluation” is supposed to be determining a person’s identity and their country of origin. However, in reality, it violates refugees’ rights and does not produce any meaningful results.

October 24, 2017 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Last-ditch attack on e-Privacy Regulation in the European Parliament

The ECR, the right-wing, Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament has joined forces with German Conservatives, Axel Voss and Monika Hohlmeier, as well as the Danish Liberal Morten Løkkegaard to try to overturn progress made on the e-Privacy Regulation. The Regulation applies to confidentiality of communications, online and offline tracking and device security. It […]

January 31, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Secret negotiations about Europol: the big rule of law scandal

In negotiations held behind closed doors, the Council of Member States and the European Parliament are about to torpedo all the efforts of the European data protection watchdog’s to hold Europol accountable for its illegal data practices.

February 12, 2020 · Highlights | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

PI and Liberty submit a new legal challenge against MI5

November 15, 2021 · Blogs | Highlights | Information democracy | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

EDRi urges Portugal government to oppose proposed video surveillance law

EDRi member and Reclaim Your Face lead organisation D3 (Defesa Dos Direitos Digitais) are raising awareness of how the Portuguese government’s new proposed video surveillance and facial recognition law – which Ministers are trying to rush through the Parliament - amounts to illiberal biometric mass surveillance. It also endangers the very foundations of democracy on which the Republic of Portugal rests.

September 20, 2025 · Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

ProtectNotSurveil coalition raises alarm about EU’s Frontex expansion plans

The European Commission is set to reform Frontex’s mandate again in 2026. Frontex is the European Border and Coast Guard agency. Responding to the consultation call, the ProtectNotSurveil coalition highlights how reckless the expansion of Frontex’s surveillance capacities would be and how the Commission’s foreseen plans go in the opposite direction of what migrants and affected communities are calling for.

September 22, 2021 · Blogs | Information democracy | Surveillance and data retention

Total surveillance law proposed in Serbia

The public debate on the Draft Law on Internal Affairs has officially introduced into legal procedure provisions for the use of mass biometric surveillance in public spaces in Serbia, advanced technologies equipped with facial recognition software that enable capturing and processing of large amounts of sensitive personal data in real time. EDRi's member the SHARE Foundation has used the opportunity of the Draft Law public debate to submit its legal comments on the provisions regulating mass biometric surveillance in public spaces, demanding from the authorities to declare a moratorium on the use of such technologies and systems in Serbia without delay.

November 16, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Activists v. Poland. European Court of Human Rights hearing on uncontrolled surveillance

On 27 September, the hearing was held at the European Court of Human Rights, following the application against Poland lodged by activists from Poland’s Panoptykon Foundation and Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, joined by a human rights attorney.

October 9, 2024 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Surveilling Europe’s edges: when digitalisation means dehumanisation

In May 2024, Access Now’s Caterina Rodelli travelled across Greece to meet with local civil society organisations supporting migrant people and monitoring human rights violations, and to see first-hand how and where surveillance technologies are deployed at Europe’s borders. In the first of a three-part blog series reflecting on what she saw, Caterina explains how, all too often, digitalising borders dehumanises the people trying to cross them.

February 19, 2020 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

A human-centric internet for Europe

The European Union has set digital transformation as one of its key pillars for the next five years. New data-driven technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), offer societal benefits – but addressing their potential risks to our democratic values, the rule of law, and fundamental rights must be a top priority. “By driving a human rights-centric […]

September 30, 2020 · EDRi-gram | Highlights

EDRi-gram, 30 September 2020

"Biometric mass surveillance is tremendously invasive and inhumane. It allows an invisible, permanent and massive control of the public space. It makes everybody a suspect. It turns our face into a tracking device, rather than a signifier of personality, eventually reducing it to a technical object."

December 11, 2025 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Cross border access to data | Surveillance and data retention

Migrant smuggling laws: European Commission found in breach of transparency rules

The European Ombudsman has found that the Commission disregarded important transparency rules while preparing the Europol Regulation, which is a part of the legislation to "counter migrant smuggling". The inquiry concluded that the Commission didn't provide enough evidence to justify the claims of "urgency" to bypass their own 'Better Regulation' rules, and skipping public consultations, thorough impact assessments and evidence gathering.