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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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June 16, 2004

EU Parliament renews decision to take Commission to court

The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (JURI) decided today to take the European Commission as well as the Council to court over the final agreement to transfer PNR data to the US without adequate guarantees for data protection. The committee, which met today (16 June 2004) for an extraordinary meeting during the Parliament’s […]

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December 4, 2013 · Blogs

“Rebuilding Trust In EU – US Data Flows” – Some Lowlights

On 27 November 2013, the European Commission finally published its Communication on the “Safe Harbor” agreement as part of a broader package on EU/US data flows. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Communication was the statement that the PNR agreement and other data sharing agreements work without substantiating any of those claims. Simply asking […]

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