Belgium
Filter by...
-
Belgian Big Brother Awards 2015 go to surveillance measures in schools and privacy-invasive apps
On 15 October, the Big Brother Awards 2015 took place in Brussels. The Awards are presented annually to “reward” the leading privacy violators.
Read more
-
EU secret profiling of air passengers nominated for “big brother awards”
Over the past 15 years, human rights, including the right to privacy, have been traded away to create ever-more invasive measures designed sometimes as tools to protect society against possible terrorist threats and sometimes as a means of being seen to be doing “something” in a show of security theatre. The leitmotif: “Safety First”. The […]
Read more
-
Terrorists behind the attacks in France not radicalised “online”
On 26 August, the French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve announced in an interview that “90 percent of those drifting into terrorism do it on the Internet”. It is not the first time that Cazeneuve mentioned this figure – he used the same statistics already on numerous occasions, mainly to defend measures contained in […]
Read more
-
Belgian coalition demands suspension of the TTIP negotiations
On 26 June 2015, the Belgian EDRi member Liga voor Mensenrechten, together with a wide coalition of other Belgian human rights and consumer organisations, trade union confederations, and environmental and development NGOs, published a declaration asking for an immediate suspension of the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that are currently ongoing […]
Read more
-
Belgian Constitutional Court rules against data retention
On 12 June, following two actions for annulment brought independently, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled against the mass collection of communications metadata. This ruling is line with a recent ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidating the directive that inspired the Belgian law. The Data Retention Directive (2006/24/CE) adopted in […]
Read more
-
Report says Facebook tracking breaches EU law
On 31 March 2015, researchers of the University of Leuven and Vrije Univeristeit Brussel, Belgium, issued a report claiming that Facebook tracks online activity both of its users and non-users. According to the report, which was commissioned by the Belgian Privacy Commission, this type of tracking contravenes EU online privacy laws. Facebook uses a tracking […]
Read more
-
Belgian Big Brother Awards 2014: This year’s winners are…
On 4 June, EDRi member Liga voor Mensenrechten granted the Belgian Big Brother Awards. The public voted for the former public prosecutor Yves Liégeois for his views on DNA databases for newborn babies. The second prize, the professional jury’s prize, went to the “smartphone”, our ever-present pocket-size spy, and the third prize, the Lifetime Achievement […]
Read more
-
Belgian Big Brother Awards 2014: The nominees
On 4 June 2014, the Belgian EDRi member Liga voor Mensenrechten will organize the 4th edition of the Big Brother Awards (BBA) in Belgium. The general public can decide on the person or organisation that will be “awarded” prizes for attacking citizens’ right to privacy. In the name of a greater “perception of security for […]
Read more
-
Belgian NGO’s challenging the data retention law
At the end of 2013, Belgium passed a law forcing communication providers to retain certain data about the activities of their customers. This means information about each and every Belgian citizen that uses electronic communications services. Providers of fixed or mobile telephony and Internet access have a legal duty to retain data (who calls whom, […]
Read more