June 8, 2022 · Open letters | Privacy and data protection | Freedom of expression online | Platform regulation | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

European Commission must uphold privacy, security and free expression by withdrawing new law, say civil society

In May, the European Commission proposed a new law: the CSA Regulation. If passed, this law would turn the internet into a space that is dangerous for everyone’s privacy, security and free expression. EDRi is one of 134 organisations calling instead for tailored, effective, rights-compliant and technically-feasible alternatives to tackle this grave issue.

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March 24, 2021 · Blogs | Information democracy | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

No faces left to hack: #ReclaimYourFace Now!

We cannot let power-hungry and profit-orientated technologies manipulate our future, take away our dignity and treat us like walking, breathing barcodes. We have the right to exercise our autonomy and self-determination free from abusive practices undermining our agency. The Reclaim Your Face’s ECI empowers Europeans to move and shape the public debate on the use of these AI-powered biometric technologies. The EU has the chance to show that people sit at the center of its values, by taking the lead to ban biometric mass surveillance that endangers our freedoms, democracies and futures.

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June 2, 2021 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Human rights groups win European Court of Human Rights claim on UK mass surveillance regime

Eight year legal battle against UK mass surveillance programmes exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden culminates in victory for privacy. EDRi's member Privacy International worked actively to make this happen.

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February 7, 2018 · Blogs | On the ground | Freedom of expression online | Surveillance and data retention

Chaos Communication Congress 2017

The 34th annual four-day hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress (34c3), organised by EDRi member Chaos Computer Club, took place in Leipzig, Germany on 27-30 December 2017. The congress offered lectures, workshops and other events on various topics related to information technology and its effects on the society. For the first time, we also organised an […]

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September 14, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Police plans for the “future of travel” are for “a future with even more surveillance”

Plans hatched by Europol and Frontex to develop a “European System for Traveller Screening” that would require massive data processing and automated profiling have been condemned as ushering in “a future with even more surveillance” by German left MEP Cornelia Ernst, who told Statewatch that “the daily lives of millions of people” should not be shaped by “agencies that long ceased to be controllable by the public and the parliament.”

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April 25, 2023 · Blogs | Press mentions | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Retrospective facial recognition surveillance conceals human rights abuses in plain sight

Following the burglary of a French logistics company in 2019, facial recognition technology (FRT) was used on security camera footage of the incident in an attempt to identify the perpetrators. In this case, the FRT system listed two hundred people as potential suspects. From this list, the police singled out ‘Mr H’ and charged him with the theft, despite a lack of physical evidence to connect him to the crime. The judge decided to rely on this notoriously discriminatory technology, sentencing Mr H to 18 months in prison.

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October 4, 2023 · Blogs | Position papers | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Position Paper: Age verification can’t ‘childproof’ the internet

EDRi has published its policy paper on age verification to shed light on the risks of the widespread use of age verification and to chart out possible alternative solutions.

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April 28, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

COVID-19: A Commission hitchhiker’s tech guide to the App Store

How's does the European Commission's toolbox and data protection guidelines fit with the EDRi network's take?

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February 10, 2021 · Blogs | Campaigns | EDRi-gram | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Chilling use of face recognition at Italian borders shows why we must ban biometric mass surveillance

As part of Reclaim Your Face's investigation in rights-violating deployments of biometric mass surveillance, EDRi member Hermes Center explains how the Italian Police are deploying dehumanising biometric systems against people at Italy’s border.

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July 7, 2021 · Blogs | Highlights | On the ground | Publications | Open internet and inclusive technology | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

Booklet: Depths of biometric mass surveillance in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland

In a new research report, EDRi reveals the shocking extent of unlawful biometric mass surveillance practices in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland which are taking over our public spaces like train stations, streets, and shops. The EU and its Member States must act now to set clear legal limits to these practices which create a state of permanent monitoring, profiling and tracking of people.

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December 8, 2021 · Blogs | Highlights | Press releases | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Cross border access to data | Surveillance and data retention

Press release: European Commission jumps the gun with proposal to add facial recognition to EU-wide police database

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to ‘streamline’ the automated sharing of facial recognition images and other sensitive data by police across the EU. What will be discarded in order to ‘streamline’ the process? Vital safeguards which are designed to protect all of us from state over-reach and authoritarian mass surveillance practices.

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February 16, 2022 · Blogs | On the ground | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Technologies for border surveillance and control in Italy

This research points out that identification and categorisation systems for migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers, rely on vast quantities of biometric data including fingerprints and facial images. It is, however, often difficult to assess how these procedures are managed. Upon identification, the aforementioned groups have limited knowledge and awareness about where and how their personal and biometric data are going to be stored and used, hindering them from countering the pressure that this flow of information puts on their subsequent living conditions in Italy and in the European Union.

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