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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May 22, 2013 · Blogs

Germany: Google must remove autocomplete harmful searches if notified

On 14 May 2013, the German Federal Court ruled that Google auto-complete feature may, under certain circumstances, constitute an infringement of the personality right, under the German Civil Code and the German Basic Law. Since April 2009, Google has introduced an “autocomplete” feature integrated into the search engine, which automatically brings forth suggestions, as word […]

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February 2, 2006

Irish ISPs to give File-sharers details

On Tuesday 24 January the Irish High Court made an order requiring three ISPs to hand over the personal details of 49 alleged file-sharers. This decision follows a similar decision in July 2005, and was made by the same judge (Kelly J.) in essentially identical terms, including an undertaking that the information would only be […]

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February 2, 2006

Slovenian Intelligence Agency performed illegal eavesdropping

The Slovenian constitutional court issued a decision on 8 December 2005 ascertaining that, in 1996, SOVA (Slovenian intelligence agency) illegally performed eavesdropping to a suspected person later sentenced for unjustified production and trading of drugs. The most aggravating evidences for the defendant were the telephone conversation recordings that SOVA made for the police. The eavesdropping […]

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January 30, 2008

***European Data Protection Day – 28.01.2008 – special section***

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) 28 January is the European Data Protection Day. For the second time, in 2008, this date marks the anniversary of the Council of Europe’s Convention 108, the first legally binding international instrument related to data protection. This section of the EDRi-gram is dedicated to the European Data […]

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May 27, 2013 · Blogs

SIF Unconference: Enforcement through "self-"Regulation – who ever thought this was a good idea?

Last week, European Digital Rights attended the second annual Stockholm Internet Forum which focused on two main themes: Internet Freedom and Security and Internet Freedom and Development. A novelty this year were the Unconference sessions. The Unconference organised by EDRi set itself the task of establishing an initial set of basic criteria for assessing the […]

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June 6, 2012

Modernisation of CoE Convention 108: EDRi's comments

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Europarat: EDRi-Stellungnahme zur Modernisierung der Konvention 108 | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.11_Europarat_EDRi-Stellungnahme_zur_Modernisierung_der_Konvention_108?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120606] EDRi submitted last week its comments on the proposal for the Modernisation of Council of Europe (CoE) Convention 108 for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data. EDRi reiterated its support to the overall […]

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May 28, 2013 · Blogs

If we assume the earth is flat – how much does data protection cost?

First we had the US administration influencing the European Commission’s drafting of privacy legislation, then we had the lobbying onslaught and the “lobbyplag” scandal. Now, we have absurd and misleading “studies” that make wild assumptions in order to come to outlandish conclusions regarding the “cost” of data protection. In the most recent example, the European […]

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February 14, 2007

Online police searches found illegal in Germany

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe ruled, on 5 February, that, according to the German Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), online police snooping was illegal. As the court argued, StPO had no provisions to allow the authorities to perform online snooping, the code allowing only […]

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June 6, 2012

A new EC proposal on e-identities and e-signatures

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Neuer Vorschlag zur elektronischen Identifizierung und E-Signaturen | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.11_Neuer_Vorschlag_zur_elektronischen_Identifizierung_und_E-Signaturen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120606] On 4 June 2012, the European Commission published a new draft regulation on e-signatures and e-identities that is meant to extend the existing e-Signatures Directive to include new services such as e-stamping or e-seals that would guarantee the origin […]

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June 5, 2013 · Blogs

Transborder data access: Strong critics on plans to extend CoE Cybercrime Treaty

The Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) held a hearing on 3 June 2013 in Strasbourg to collect views from civil society and the private sector on its plans to further extent Convention 185 provisions on transborder access to data through a draft additional Protocol. The proposal received strong criticism from most of the […]

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