mass surveillance
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Press Release: Vote on Data Protection and Passenger Name Record package
The European Parliament looks set to adopt two proposals on data protection and a proposal on the profiling of air passengers (PNR, Passenger Name Records) tomorrow, 14 April. The two data protection proposals seek to protect our fundamental right to privacy. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) covers the protection of personal data across all […]
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Special report: Poland’s secret services are still using and abusing telecom and Internet data
With almost two million requests for telecommunication data and more than two thousand requests for Internet data concerning Polish citizens in 2015, it is clear that the access to metadata in Poland by the country’s secret services is still out of control. Compared to 2014, the Polish Panoptykon Foundation found that the number of requests […]
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ENDitorial: PNR – political finger-pointing, no viable legislation
The EU Passenger Name Record Directive (or ‘PNR Directive’) would require the storage of travel data for airline passengers, ostensibly for law enforcement purposes. The specialist European Parliament committee responsible for the proposal rejected it in 2013 but adopted the proposal in 2015, following the terrorist attacks. The European Parliament recently decided not to schedule […]
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EDRi co-hosts the Privacy Camp, 26 January 2016
In the run up to CPDP conference in Brussels, civil society groups met at the fifth annual Privacy Camp to exchange views and develop new strategies. This year’s conference took place under the title “The Multiple Ways of (De/Self)-Regulation: What is at stake for Human Rights?” and included various panels and speakers from around the […]
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FAQ: Passenger Name Records (PNR)
The European Union will adopt soon a Directive on the long-term storage and use of “Passenger Name Records” (PNR) for the purpose of profiling individuals as possible serious criminals or terrorists.
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Civil rights groups condemn draft mass surveillance bill to be adopted in France
Today EDRi, together with 30 civil rights groups, sent the following letter to French parliamentarians to condemn a draft mass surveillance bill which is scheduled to be adopted on 1 October. You can download the letter in English (pdf) and in French (pdf). If your organisation wishes to sign, please contact us at brussels(at)edri.org. Dear […]
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Netzpolitik.org case: Prosecutor dismissed, inquiry dropped
As reported previously in EDRi-gram at the end of July 2015, two reporters of a German digital rights blog Netzpolitik.org, Markus Beckedahl and André Meister, were under investigation for treason after the publication of leaked documents revealing plans to expand German internet surveillance. On 10 August, German federal prosecutors announced that the much disputed investigation will […]
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French Constitutional Council approves sweeping surveillance powers
On 23 July, the French Constitutional Council approved sweeping surveillance powers for intelligence agencies. In its decision, the Council declared almost all provisions constitutional, in contradiction to vehement opposition from civil rights groups, human rights experts, academia and the online business sector. The “Loi Renseignement” (also dubbed the “French Patriot Act”) was passed by the […]
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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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Danish anti-terror proposal expands surveillance
On 19 February 2015, the Danish government presented a 12-point plan for new anti-terror initiatives in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris and the shooting incident in Copenhagen on 14 February. This will become the third major anti-terror package since 2001 to be presented to the Danish Parliament. The focus of the plan […]
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Macedonia: Massive surveillance revelation: 20 000 people wiretapped
On 10 February, EDRi-member Metamorphosis, expressed grave concern about the publicly announced allegations of mass and unauthorised surveillance of citizens. Invasions of privacy directly affect freedom of expression in Macedonia, and fuel the overall climate of fear and silence. On 9 February 2015, the Macedonian opposition leader Zoran Zaev held a press conference in Skopje, […]
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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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