December 2, 2015 · Blogs

ENDitorial: After Paris – selling freedom for security

Shortly after the Paris attacks on 13 November 2015, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland stated: “Terrorists can’t destroy our democracies, only we can do that”. Shortly after the Paris attacks, European Parliament adopted amendments to its Report on “the prevention of radicalisation and recruitment of European citizens by terrorist organisations”, demanding […]

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December 20, 2016 · Press mentions

EDRi’s Press Review 2016

During the past year, our work to defend citizens’ rights and freedoms online has gained an impressive visibility – we counted nearly four hundred mentions! – in European and international media. Below, you can find our press review 2016.

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February 1, 2016 · Blogs

EDRi’s work in 2015

Information technology has a revolutionary impact on our society. It has boosted freedom of communication and democracy but has also led to new approaches to surveillance and is increasingly used to impose restrictions on fundamental rights. In the past year, we worked hard to ensure that your rights and freedoms in the online environment are […]

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January 28, 2015 · Blogs

French Patriot Act: Do we really need more surveillance?

On 21 January, only two weeks after the attacks in Paris, the French government announced a big bundle of new security measures, a “general mobilisation against terrorism”. But does the country need more surveillance? France has introduced telecommunications data retention for communications more than ten years ago, it has extensive video surveillance and intelligence services […]

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June 4, 2015 · Blogs

Surveillance of air passengers: Letter to Parliamentarians

Today, 4 June, in light of the discussion in the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the amendments for the Passenger Name Record (PNR) proposal, we have sent the following e-mail to all members in the Committee: “Dear Ms/Mr ……, Ahead of today’s debate on the proposed EU-PNR Directive, EDRi […]

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August 5, 2015 · Blogs

Our internships at EDRi: We made digital rights matter

During the last couple of months, as EDRi’s interns, through advocacy, campaigning and reporting, we were given a unique opportunity to challenge threats to fundamental rights posed in the context of net neutrality, privacy, personal data and copyright. It was a fruitful and rewarding experience that allowed us to put our theoretical skills into practice […]

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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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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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September 22, 2010

Freedom not Fear 2010 – Stop Surveillance Mania!

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Freiheit statt Angst – Stoppt den Überwachungswahn! | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2197] For the fourth consecutive time, this year the International Action Day took place on 11 September under the motto “Freedom not Fear 2010 – Stop Surveillance Mania”. The events that took place in several European towns such as Berlin, […]

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June 29, 2016 · Blogs

How digital rights in the UK will be affected by Brexit

The United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU means that inhabitants of the country no longer have a clear idea what levels and kinds of protection of digital rights they will have in the future. Nearly all the relevant law is European. A lot depends on the kind of model of leaving the EU that […]

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November 2, 2011

EU-Australia agreement on travel data transfers adopted by EP

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [EP: Fluggastdaten-Abkommen mit Australien beschlossen | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.21_EP_Fluggastdaten_Abkommen_mit_Australien_beschlossen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20111110] As expected, the European Parliament (EP) gave its consent to the agreement on Passenger Name Records with Australia (yes 463, no 96, abstentions 11) on 27 October 2011. It had already been signed by the Australian Ambassador, Brendan Nelson, and Ambassador […]

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May 21, 2014 · Blogs

Legal analysis of the Data Retention ruling of the European Court

The legal service of the Council of the European Union has produced an analysis of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the data retention Directive. While these documents are normally confidential, this text has been leaked and provides interesting insights into the ruling – making one wonder what justification […]

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