metadata
Filter by...
-
New Data Retention ruling is a victory for civil society
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has announced a historic judgement today: the current telecommunications data retention in Germany violates the fundamental rights of people in the European Union. The underlying data retention law is therefore null and void.
Read more
-
CJEU upholds strict requirements for law enforcement access to electronic communications metadata
Traffic and location data may allow precise conclusions to be drawn about the persons involved, e.g. their social relationships or the social environments frequented by them. In most cases, the CJEU has only allowed access to such data for serious crimes. However, the CJEU ruled that access to retained data is only allowed in cases of serious crime when the access implies a serious interference, and in all criminal cases when the access does not imply a serious interference.
Read more
-
#ALTwitter privacy revelation: European parliamentarian goes bananas
Recently, Mr Dunston (of the “Dunston Checks In” fame) came to the EDRi Brussels office looking for help. He complained that somebody from the European Parliament is messing up with his “holy banana collection” that he has been preserving since decades after he inherited it from his forefathers. Other than that we had no information.
Read more
-
ALTwitter: The treasure trove behind 140 characters
One of the main reasons why metadata is used broadly for surveillance and targeted advertisement is its extensive capability to capture more dimensions of useful information than the data itself. An ordinary internet user fails to see the mysterious nature of metadata because it is invisible to the naked eye. Law enforcement agencies and advertisers, on […]
Read more
-
ALTwitter – profiling with metadata
When we are sharing links, events or ideas through social media, we leave behind a trace of metadata: when and how often, which days of the week, in which language, using which hashtag, linking to which users or websites, and so on. Those details might not say much when we look at each piece of […]
Read more
-
Hakuna Metadata – Let’s have some fun with Sid’s browsing history!
But I am not interesting enough for someone to bother to look into my browsing history. The most common argument for people not to be more wary of the threats to their online privacy is that, simply, no one cares. Or at least not enough. But still, don’t we all like to delete our browsing […]
Read more
-
Hakuna Metadata – Exploring the browsing history
Metadata is data about data. In an e-mail, the data is the content of the e-mail and metadata is the information about the e-mail. So, it covers information like who is it from or who sent it, the date and time, the subject, network information etc. When we are browsing the internet, data is represented […]
Read more
-
The Principles Week of Action: A world without mass surveillance
Between 15 and 19 September, several digital rights organisations, including EDRi and many of its members, will be celebrating the first anniversary of the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance. The Principles were first launched in the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 20 September 2013. Drawing on international law […]
Read more