Netherlands
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The Netherlands, aim for a more ambitious copyright implementation!
All EU Member States are obliged to implement the newly adopted EU Copyright Directive, including its controversial Article 17. But how to interpret it, is up to them. In the Netherlands, there is currently a draft bill, which is unfortunately very disappointing. The government really needs to try much harder to protect the interests of […]
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Time for better net neutrality rules
A Dutch court struck a blow against strong net neutrality protections. According to the court, the mobile operator T-Mobile may continue to provide certain music services with preferential treatment to its customers in the Netherlands − a disappointing judgment showing the need for better rules.
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We can no longer talk about sex on Facebook in Europe
Sometime in late 2018, Facebook quietly added “Sexual Solicitation” to its list of “Objectionable Content”. Without notifying its users. This is quite remarkable, to put it mildly, as for many people sex is far from being a negligible part of life.
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Bits of Freedom announces winner of privacy award
The Dutch Big Brother Awards will take place on 22 January 2019 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This year’s distinguished winner of the Felipe Rodriguez Award is Kirsten Fiedler, Managing Director of European Digital Rights. With this award, a Dutch digital rights organisation, EDRi member Bits of Freedom recognises people and organisations who have made a remarkable […]
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T-Mobile treats everyone equally unequally
The Dutch national regulatory authority, Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), has again decided that the mobile operator T-Mobile does in fact respect European net neutrality rules. EDRi-member Bits of Freedom believes the decision of ACM is short-sighted. On 8 February 2018, the regulatory authority published its decision on our objection to its decision on […]
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Dutch mass surveillance law receives two BBA nominations
Until 9 November 2017 people in the Netherlands could nominate individuals, organisations and companies for a Big Brother Award. The three most “popular” nominees are now in the running to become the biggest privacy offender of the year. Two of the three nominees, Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) parliamentary party leader Sybrand Buma and the Cabinet, […]
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The Dutch continue to fight new mass surveillance law
On 4 November 2017, 20 000 households in the Netherlands received a letter from the Interior Security Service, Rijksveiligheidsdienst. The letter asked people to make an appointment to have a relay installed in their home. The letter stated that this installation was necessary because of the new Intelligence and Security Services Act, which gives the […]
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High time: Policy makers increasingly embrace encryption
Encryption is of critical importance to our democracy and rule of law. Nevertheless, politicians frequently advocate for weakening this technology. Slowly but surely, however, policy makers seem to start embracing it.
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Netherlands: Sharing of travel data violated students’ privacy
It was all over the news on 22 August 2017: Translink, the company responsible for the Dutch public transport card “OV-chipkaart” had been passing student travel data to the Education Executive Agency responsible for student finance in the Netherlands (DUO). DUO uses this data to figure out whether students who claim to live on their […]
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Dutch Senate votes in favour of dragnet surveillance powers
On 11 July 2017, the Dutch Senate passed the bill for the new Intelligence and Security Services Act. With the Senate vote, a years-long political battle has come to an end: the secret services have been given dragnet surveillance powers.
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ENDitorial: Draconian anti-terrorism measures instil terror
We are becoming more and more scared. Images of terror attacks influence our daily decisions. A friend of mine gets nervous when he has to travel past an airport by train, and another friend surprised me by telling me that this year he stayed home during gay pride. Several people have told me of times […]
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Dutch ban on zero-rating struck down – major blow to net neutrality
20 April 2017 was a bad day for net neutrality in the Netherlands, and possibly also in the rest of Europe. The court of Rotterdam struck down the general ban on price discrimination, including zero-rating, as enacted in the Dutch Telecommunications Act. The court held that the categorical ban on price discrimination is “evidently” in […]
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