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Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Internet.org vs. Net Neutrality, Privacy and Security
On 18 May 2015, EDRi signed a joint open letter together with other 64 civil society organisations expressing concerns about Internet.org and asking Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to defend Net neutrality, Privacy, Security and other rights in relation to Internet.org. You can read the letter below: Dear Mark Zuckerberg, We, the undersigned, share a common […]
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Social media platforms blocked again in Turkey
Turkish authorities ordered access to 166 websites, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, to be blocked after photos of a hostage crisis that ended with the death of a government prosecutor were circulated in the social media platforms. On 31 March 2015, in Istanbul’s courthouse, two militants took Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage. He was the prosecutor […]
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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 […]
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Revelations on Safe Harbour violations go to hearing at EU Court
In late 2012, Max Schrems, a privacy advocate and member of the Europe v Facebook group requested that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner investigate the alleged sharing of European Facebook users’ information with the United States National Security Agency (NSA), in the light of the Snowden revelations. These revelations suggest that Facebook and the US […]
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Net neutrality: Freedom also means banning positive discrimination
Zero rating, also known as “sponsored data”, is the policy of mobile network providers and mobile virtual network providers to not charge their clients for using specific services, such as Facebook or YouTube. Zero rating is a bad idea for several reasons: You give specific services an advantage over their competitors, and push users towards […]
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Facing a challenge – understanding Facebook’s opt-out instructions
Following Facebook’s new changes in its terms of service, the company has provided a public relations pitch about “your information” and how Facebook “respects the choices that you make” about the advertising that you see. In particular, it says “That’s why Facebook respects the choices you make about the ads you see, across every device. […]
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How to deal with Facebook’s new tracking policies
If you use Facebook, you may have noticed that they have unilaterally changed the rules again about how they use your data. According to The Independent, the new change allows Facebook to gather data from activity across the internet, as well as the normal data it gathers on information you and your friends have added […]
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ENDitorial: Paris attack: Imagine if political leaders were leaders
Imagine if our political leaders were leaders. Imagine if our “leaders” defended our freedoms by defending our freedoms. Imagine if, instead of dragging another set of restrictive measures from the shelf where they sat waiting to exploit the next atrocity, Europe’s leaders decided that the principles that Charlie Hebdo defends are actually worth defending. Imagine, […]
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Googling your brain: latest “data protection” proposals from Council
When the European Commission proposed its Data Protection Directive in 1995, it made the decision not to give the EU Member States the option to opt out of its profiling (“automated decision-making”) provisions. Even in the days before “big data” and rampant mass surveillance, the dangers of using personal data to make decisions based on […]
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Europe vs. Facebook class action attracts over 60 000 plaintiffs
Privacy activist Max Schrems, founder of the “Europe-v-Facebook” initiative, is known for his battles involving Internet social network giant Facebook. However, all the lawsuits he filed in Ireland haven’t led to meaningful outcomes, so far. Therefore, Mr. Schrems now takes a different approach, by suing Facebook Ireland Ltd. This time he has filed suit in […]
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Irish High Court refers the Facebook/PRISM case to the CJEU
On 18 June 2014 Ireland’s High Court referred the request to investigate Facebook’s international headquarters in Ireland over its involvement in the PRISM scandal to the European Court of Justice (CJEU). CJEU was asked to review the case and to clarify whether the social network’s actions are compatible with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. […]
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Facebook adds third-party website data to ad targeting profiles
Facebook announced in a blog post on 12 June 2014 that it will start expanding its users’ advertising data by letting marketers target ads based not only on users’ activities on the social network, but also on third-party websites. By clicking on an arrow in the corner of the ads, a user can see the […]
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