Budget cuts incapacitate Austrian DPA: NGOs complaint to the EU Commission
Despite its growing responsibilities, the Austrian Data Protection Authority continues to be impaired by budget cuts. epicenter.works and noyb are filing a complaint with the European Commission about Austria not fulfilling its obligations of sufficiently funding its data protection authority and leaving millions of Austrians to deal with consequences of limited access to the fundamental right to data protection.
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Budget cuts incapacitate Austrian DPA: NGOs complaint to the EU Commission
Despite its growing responsibilities, the Austrian Data Protection Authority continues to be impaired by budget cuts. epicenter.works and noyb are filing a complaint with the European Commission about Austria not fulfilling its obligations of sufficiently funding its data protection authority and leaving millions of Austrians to deal with consequences of limited access to the fundamental right to data protection.
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A Privacy Nightmarе: Understanding Spyware, a new book by SHARE Foundation
SHARE Foundation’s new book ‘A Privacy Nightmare: Understanding Spyware’ examines spyware through technical, legal, and practical lenses, offering a systemic understanding of its threats and reinforcing the call for a global ban.
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ProtectNotSurveil coalition raises alarm about EU’s Frontex expansion plans
The European Commission is set to reform Frontex’s mandate again in 2026. Frontex is the European Border and Coast Guard agency. Responding to the consultation call, the ProtectNotSurveil coalition highlights how reckless the expansion of Frontex’s surveillance capacities would be and how the Commission’s foreseen plans go in the opposite direction of what migrants and affected communities are calling for.
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Consultation response to the European Commission’s call for evidence on a new Europol regulation
The European Commission launched a call for evidence to gather views on the reform of Europol’s mandate. Europol is the EU law enforcement cooperation agency. EDRi along with Resist Europol coalition members submitted a response to the consultation, sharing their concerns about this renewed expansion of powers, despite Europol’s numerous issues around opacity and lack of accountability.
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EDRi warns against GDPR ‘simplification’ at EU Commission dialogue
On 16 July 2025, EDRi participated in the European Commission’s GDPR Implementation Dialogue. We defended the GDPR as a cornerstone of the EU’s digital rulebook and opposed further attempts to weaken it under the banner of ‘simplification’. The discussion was more divided than the official summary suggests.
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Undermining the GDPR through ‘simplification’: EDRi pushes back against dangerous deregulation
EDRi has responded to the European Commission’s consultation on the GDPR ‘simplification’ proposal. The plan to remove documentation safeguards under Article 30(5) risks weakening security, legal certainty and rights enforcement, and opens the door to broader deregulation of the EU’s digital rulebook.
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Joint civil society response to the Commission’s call for evidence: Impact assessment on data retention by service providers for criminal proceedings
Last week, the EDRi network expressed shared concerns about the introduction of new rules at EU level on the retention of data by service providers for law enforcement purposes.
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Data flows and digital repression: Civil society urges EU to reassess Israel’s adequacy status
On 24 June 2025, EDRi, Access Now and other civil society organisations sent a second letter to the European Commission, urging it to reassess Israel’s data protection adequacy status under the GDPR. The letter outlines six categories of concerns linking Israel’s data practices to escalating human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank.
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Open Letter: Reopening the GDPR is a threat to rights, accountability, and the future of EU digital policy
121 civil society organisations, academics, companies and other experts, including EDRi, are concerned about the proposals to reopen the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). They are calling on the European Commission to protect people’s rights and dignity in a data-driven world by reaffirming the GDPR as the cornerstone of EU’s digital law and supporting its rigorous enforcement.
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Ljubljana’s municipal surveillance: Where trust trumps data
During a Ljubljana municipal council debate on CCTV transparency, several concerning points were raised regarding the Slovenian capital's network of over 500 surveillance cameras and the methods employed to assess their effectiveness in preventing crime. The discussion revealed that the entire system relies heavily on trust in the authorities, without any substantial data to support the cameras' effectiveness or a clear rationale for their widespread deployment.
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CJEU saved the HADOPI: what implications for the future of data retention in the EU?
The Court of Justice of the European Union judgement on the HADOPI case (C-470/21) is significant for the ongoing debate on mandatory retention of metadata, such as traffic and location data. EDRi provides key takeaways and what they mean for the upcoming data retention legislation by the European Commission.
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When data never dies: How better GDPR enforcement could minimise hate and harm
Lax enforcement of the GDPR has had far-reaching consequences for many people and collectives in the EU, especially those most vulnerable. Through a story based on real life experiences of people, this blog highlights the gap between the GDPR’s promise of protection and its current reality of weak enforcement, and the opportunity EU lawmakers have with the ongoing GDPR Procedural Regulations to take bold steps to protect our data rights.
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