April 2, 2025 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

Surveilling Europe’s edges: when research legitimises border violence

In May 2024, EDRi member 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.

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April 21, 2021 · Blogs | Highlights | Open letters | Information democracy | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

EU’s AI proposal must go further to prevent surveillance and discrimination

The European Commission has just launched the EU draft regulation on artificial intelligence (AI). AI systems are being increasingly used in all areas of life – to monitor us at protests, to identify us for access to health and public services, to make predictions about our behaviour or how much ‘risk’ we pose. Without clear safeguards, these systems could further the power imbalance between those who develop and use AI and those who are subject to them.

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December 9, 2020 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

The slippery slope of COVID health passports

There is increasing talk of measures that allow or restrict passengers at the departure gate based on health data. Can you show proof of vaccination? Then you may pass. Do you have a recent, negative test result? Then you may enter. Are you unable or unwilling to show these? Then you are denied access. There’s an understandable rationale that underpins these scenarios: we want to create a safe environment. Yet it is also cause for great concern.

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July 20, 2023 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Voluntary detection measures still on the table for the CSA Regulation

Whilst the draft EU CSA Regulation is intended to replace current voluntary scanning of people's communications with mandatory detection orders, lawmakers in the Council and Parliament are actively considering supplementing this with "voluntary detection orders". However, our analysis finds that voluntary measures would require a legal basis in the CSA Regulation, which would likely fall foul of the Court of Justice. Content warning: contains discussions of child sexual abuse and child sexual abuse material

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December 4, 2019 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Privacy and data protection | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Profiling practices | Surveillance and data retention

Facial recognition and fundamental rights 101

This is the first post in a series about the fundamental rights impacts of facial recognition. Private companies and governments worldwide are already experimenting with facial recognition technology. Individuals, lawmakers, developers - and everyone in between - should be aware of the rise of facial recognition, and the risks it poses to rights to privacy, freedom, democracy and non-discrimination.

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January 19, 2022 · Blogs | Press mentions | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Online surveillance thrives when fear takes over

European law-enforcement agencies have been pushing to end encryption and survey everyone’s online communications.

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September 27, 2023 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Czech police use facial recognition system, IuRe finds out details

EDRi member Iuridicum Remedium have details on the Czech police’s illegal use of a facial recognition system. The country’s data protection authorities were not consulted in advance on the system, which is being used for biometric identification

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May 19, 2021 · Blogs | Campaigns | Information democracy | Artificial intelligence (AI) | Biometrics | Surveillance and data retention

Can a COVID-19 face mask protect you from facial recognition technology too?

Mass facial recognition risks our collective futures and shapes us into fear-driven societies of suspicion. This got folks at EDRi and Privacy International brainstorming. Could the masks that we now wear to protect each other from Coronavirus also protect our anonymity, preventing the latest mass facial recognition systems from identifying us?

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February 2, 2022 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Online Safety Bill: Kill Switch for Encryption

Of the many worrying provisions contained within the draft Online Safety Bill, perhaps the most consequential is contained within Chapter 4, at clauses 63-69. This section of the Bill hands OFCOM the power to issue “Use of Technology Notices” to search engines and social media companies.

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July 21, 2023 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Freedom of expression online | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Council poised to endorse mass surveillance as official position for CSA Regulation

The Council of EU Member States are close to finalising their position on the controversial CSA Regulation. Yet the latest slew of Council amendments – just like the European Commission’s original – endorse measures which amount to mass surveillance and which would fundamentally undermine end-to-end encryption.

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April 4, 2024 · Blogs | Campaigns | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Surveillance and data retention

Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic: Belgium’s latest move doesn’t solve critical issues with EU CSA Regulation

The EDRi network has long-urged European Union (EU) lawmakers to ensure that efforts to combat OCSEA (online child sexual exploitation and abuse) are lawful, effective and technically feasible. The goal to protect children online is vital. This can only be done if the proposed measures work and are compatible with human rights, including privacy and the presumption of innocence.

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January 16, 2023 · Blogs | Information democracy | Open internet and inclusive technology | Privacy and data protection

Looking back at 2022: Protecting and advancing digital rights in times of crisis

In moments where we should be urgently tackling the climate crisis and working towards peace and justice worldwide, state funds and efforts seem to reinforce militarisation, fuel the climate crises and injustice. In response to increased surveillance and control practices coming from governments and private companies, EDRi members and partners have put forward a vision in which people live with dignity and vitality. What have we collectively achieved in 2022?

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