March 11, 2025 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Stop Europol’s Trojan Horse: 168 organisations and experts call to reject “insidious” police powers expansion

ProtectNotSurveil, of which EDRi is a member, published today a joint statement by 168 organisations and experts calling for the rejection of the Europol Regulation and to amend the proposed Facilitation Directive. The so-called ‘Facilitators Package’ would expand surveillance measures, erode the right to seek asylum and criminalise human movement.

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January 30, 2008

European Parliament hearing on Internet privacy issues

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) During a hearing of the European Parliament (EP)’s Civil Liberties Committee, on 21 January 2008, serious data protection concerns were raised by the practice of large Internet companies that monitor the online behaviour of their users in order to provide online advertisers with the necessary information to […]

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June 4, 2003

Belgian DPA investigates transfer of passenger data

Following a complaint from European parliament member Marco Cappato the Belgian data protection office is investigating a possible violation of European privacy law by the airline carriers Continental Airlines and United Airlines. Mr Cappato sent a letter to the Belgian data protection commissioner urging his office to investigate the transfer of his personal data to […]

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June 15, 2011

Facebook's face recognition raises privacy complaints

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Besorgnis über Facebooks Gesichtserkennung | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.12_Besorgnis_ueber_Facebooks_Gesichtserkennung?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20110623] Facebook has again been criticised by privacy advocates for its facial recognition feature that has recently been added to the social networking service, world-wide, without any previous announcement to its users. Facebook users have the possibility to ‘tag’ themselves and their friends […]

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May 23, 2012

Amesys – Complicity in torture: surveillance tech export control needed

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Amesys’ Mittäterschaft bei Folterungen: Kontrolle des Exports von Überwachungstechnologien gefordert | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.10_Amesys_Mittaeterschaft_bei_Folterungen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120523] The Paris Court Prosecutor decided on 21 May 2012 to probe the Amesys company, a BULL’s subsidiary, over complicity of torture in Libya under Kadhafi. The investigation, which follows a criminal complaint jointly filed by the […]

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May 22, 2013 · Blogs

Complaints against Irish DPA's lack of action against Facebook

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Beschwerden über die Untätigkeit der irischen Datenschutzbehörde in Sachen Facebook | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.10_Beschwerden_ueber_die_Untaetigkeit_der_irischen_Datenschutzbehoerde_in_Sachen_Facebook?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130530] Ireland’s data protection authority, ODPC, seems to be deaf to citizens’ complaints against Facebook. According to the non-profit association “Europe versus Facebook”, during the last two years, there have been about 1 000 complaints against Facebook […]

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February 2, 2006

EU Visa Database under scrutiny of the European Data Protection

In a public opinion from 20 January 2006, Mr. Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, was very critical about the wide access possibilities the European Commission wanted to give to the new Visa Information System. The Commission published its “Proposal for a Council Decision concerning access for consultation of the Visa Information System (VIS)” […]

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January 30, 2008

Personal sensitive data keep on being lost in UK

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Many documents with confidential data including benefit claims, passport photocopies and mortgage payments were found on 17 January 2008 lost on a roundabout near Exeter Airport in Devon, UK. Mr Karl-Heinz Korzenietz, the finder of the documents, told BBC News: “I thought first of all it was […]

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May 22, 2013 · Blogs

Apple’s privacy policy breaches German data protection laws

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Apples Datenschutzpolitik verstößt gegen deutsches Recht | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.10_Apples_Datenschutzpolitik_verstoesst_gegen_deutsches_Recht?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130530] The Berlin Regional Court ruled on 7 May 2013 that 8 of Apple’s privacy policy clauses are infringing the German data protection laws and asked the company to rectify them. The case was brought to court by the German consumer […]

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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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January 30, 2008

New spying tools patented by Microsoft

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) According to The Times, a patent application has been filed by Microsoft for a computer software that can monitor the employees’ performance and state, by means of wireless sensors linking workers to their computers. The system, considered by Microsoft a “unique monitoring system”, is capable of measuring […]

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May 22, 2013 · Blogs

Russia ratifies CoE Convention 108 on data protection

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Russland ratifiziert die Datenschutz-Konvention 108 des Europarats | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.10_Russland_ratifiziert_die_Datenschutz-Konvention_108_des_Europarats?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130530] The Russian Federation strengthened its commitment to the protection of personal data by ratifying, on 15 May 2013, the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, also known […]

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