law enforcement
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EU to provide training on “covert techniques” to abusive police forces
The European Police College is to train a host of states with miserable human rights records on the use of “covert techniques in forensics and mobile telecommunications” and will provide “training activities related to cyber-attacks in order to build capacities for law enforcement, judicial authorities and other relevant bodies.”
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Position Paper: State access to encrypted data
EDRi’s new policy paper on encryption highlights that our privacy and security must be strongly protected, keeping into account the recent policy developments on encryption and law enforcement. Trust in communication systems is vital for our lives and connections with others. This allows us to work, socialise, organise, express ourselves, and care for each other safely.
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Foreign authorities are banning Google and Microsoft services from schools, the Czech Republic is floundering
Jan Cibulka, a journalist for iROZHLAS and member of the Big Brother Awards CZ Jury, organised by EDRi member Iuridicum Remedium, has investigated how Czech authorities and schools are approaching the protection of privacy when using distance learning tools. Such tools send sensitive information overseas, where US law gives intelligence agencies access to it. The tools do not guarantee that children's private chats will not be accessed by, for example, teachers. While the first regional governments in Europe are developing safer alternatives, in the Czech Republic the risk assessment remains up to individual schools. In practice, they have little choice.
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Travel surveillance: member states seek to circumvent court judgment on PNR
In June this year the the Court of Justice ruled that the rules governing the EU's system for travel surveillance and passenger profiling, set out in the Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive, must be "interpreted restrictively" to conform with fundamental rights standards. The ruling requires substantial changes to member state practices - but the Council, in time-honoured fashion, is looking at how to circumvent it, and to ensure the greatest possible freedom of manouevre for law enforcement authorities.
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Europol’s new powers will enable Big Data analysis and mass surveillance. We say NO!
The European Parliament is soon to vote on the new Europol reform which aims to expand the law enforcement agency’s powers without any accountability and with as few fundamental rights safeguards as possible. To influence the vote, EDRi has mobilised civil society organisations in a joint advocacy action of reaching out directly to members of the European Parliament to urge them to vote against the proposal.
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The EU’s own ‘Snowden Scandal’: Europol’s Data Mining
On 3 January 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), which supervises the processing of personal data by the EU’s law enforcement agency, Europol, ordered Europol to delete data held in its databases on individuals with no established link to criminal activity.
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Stories reveal profound flaws in the “e-Evidence Regulation”
The Regulation on cross border access to data by law enforcement (so-called “e-Evidence” Regulation) threatens to put the rights of journalists, lawyers, doctors, social workers and individuals in general at great risk. EDRi and 13 civil rights organisations have just launched four scenarios that clearly depict how our future could enfold if the Regulation is approved.
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Europol inches closer to increasing its powers despite lacking accountability
Europol was caught breaking the law and developing new initiatives without any proper legal basis (e.g. Europol’s innovation lab). Many proposed changes to Europol's mandate show an attempt to legalise the agency’s unlawful activities. In addition, this revision is happening even before the first implementation evaluation of Europol’s Regulation, planned for 2022, has been carried out. Without this evaluation, it is impossible to assess whether the current rules impede the fulfilment of the Agency’s missions and whether its working practices respect fundamental rights.
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New Cybercrime Protocol: weak safeguards against big risks of abuse
In 2017, the Council of Europe (CoE) and its Cybercrime Committee started preparing an additional protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime – a new tool for law enforcement authorities (LEAs) to have access to data held by private companies in the context of criminal investigations.
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New Cybercrime Protocol: More overreach, still no data protection safeguards
In the context of the fifth round of consultation with civil society, data protection authorities and industry, EDRi and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) coordinated a civil society submission to provide feedback on the new draft provisions relating to joint investigations, request for domain name registration information and expedited disclosure of stored computer data in an emergency.
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Germany asks what should the EU do about encryption for law enforcement?
On 22 September, Statewatch released a document issued by the German Presidency of the Council to help establish a common EU position on finding ways around encrypted communications for the needs of law enforcement.
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Europol: Non-accountable cooperation with IT companies could go further
There is an ongoing mantra among law enforcement authorities in Europe according to which private companies are indispensable partners in the fight against “cyber-enabled” crimes as they are often in possession of personal data relevant for law enforcement operations. For that reason, police authorities increasingly attempt to lay hands on data held by companies – sometimes in disregard to the safeguards imposed by long-standing judicial cooperation mechanisms.
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