data retention
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Dutch government says no to weakening encryption
The Dutch government will, “at this time”, “not adopt restrictive legislative measures against the development, availability and use of encryption within the Netherlands.” This statement was posted by the Dutch government in a letter to the Dutch parliament on 4 January 2016. This is clearly position to be applauded. In the letter, the government recognises […]
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Swedish border control becomes a privacy nightmare for travellers
European citizens are finding that their freedom of travel is being curtailed as more and more Schengen countries introduce temporary border controls in response to the flow of refugees from the Middle East war and conflict zones. Moreover, Sweden and Denmark have passed national legislations which gives train, bus and ship operators the responsibility of […]
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EU Council on Data Retention: “Can we please just have it back?”
One and a half years after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the Data Retention Directive, the idea of having an EU data retention instrument is back on the table. On 8 September 2015, officials from the European Commission (EC) told EDRi that, despite the evidence that we provided of the […]
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Safe Harbor: European Court Advocate General says Agreement should be declared invalid
This morning, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in his Opinion on the “Safe Harbor” Agreement with the United States, advised the Court to declare the entire Agreement invalid. The catalyst for the case was the mass surveillance practices of the United States. Sixteen years ago, the EU […]
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State of play of internet freedom in the Netherlands
Dutch EDRi member Bits of Freedom is diligently watching a set of broad tendencies, such as the dominant positions of a handful of tech giants, the Internet of Things, and the idea that technology cannot be neutral. Bits of Freedom is also working hard to prevent the occurrence of a number of very real threats […]
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European Commission & Data Retention – a faulty basis for decision-making*?
Due to the sensitive nature of this summary, we shared it with the European Commission to allow for any corrections or clarifications that were deemed necessary before publication. The draft was updated on the basis of the feedback that was received, but not all suggestions from the Commission services were accepted by us. As a […]
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Romania: After PNR, a proposal for retention of tourist data
On 15 July 2015, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament narrowly voted in favour of the EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive proposal (32 in favour, 26 against, no abstentions), a mass surveillance measure to collect and process air traveller data for profiling purposes. This came after […]
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Austria creates new agency with unprecedented surveillance powers
In the midst of the biggest surveillance scandal of mankind and after years of criticism about rogue secret agencies spying on politicians and the government bodies supposed to control them, Austria is planning to establish a new secret agency. Austria’s draft state security law, “Staatsschutzgesetz”, grants new, far reaching surveillance powers while reducing oversight and […]
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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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European Commission will “monitor” existing EU data retention laws
The European Commission (EC) told EDRi that it “will continue monitoring legislative developments at the national level” regarding the existence of data retention laws in EU Member States. The EC provided this non-committal response to the letter we sent on 2 July 2015, asking the Commission to investigate illegal data retention laws in the European […]
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EU PNR document pool
The proposal for a EU PNR Directive (Fight against terrorism and serious crime: use of passenger name record (PNR) data (procedure file 2011/0023(COD) ) was adopted by the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee on 15 July 2015. The narrow vote (32 in favor, 26 against, no abstentions) in favour happened despite the rejection of this […]
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EU PNR: Unproven, ineffective strategies are not security
“When people are scared, they need something done that will make them feel safe, even if it doesn’t truly make them safer. Politicians naturally want to do something in response to crisis, even if that something doesn’t make any sense.” Bruce Schneier, Security expert The proposal for a EU PNR Directive (Fight against terrorism and […]
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