EU: Data retention strikes back? Options for mass telecoms surveillance under discussion again
In June 2021 the European Commission sought the views of member states on ways to reintroduce the bulk retention of telecoms traffic, location and internet connection data on everyone in the EU. Responses from seven member states, published here, show a divergence of views on what data to retain and when, but a majority in favour of new EU legislation.
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EU: Data retention strikes back? Options for mass telecoms surveillance under discussion again
In June 2021 the European Commission sought the views of member states on ways to reintroduce the bulk retention of telecoms traffic, location and internet connection data on everyone in the EU. Responses from seven member states, published here, show a divergence of views on what data to retain and when, but a majority in favour of new EU legislation.
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Has the Parliament effectively wielded the Digital Services Act to challenge platform power? The verdict is, somewhat.
Today, the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) has approved its much-anticipated report on the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA affects how intermediaries like Google and Amazon regulate and influence user activity on their platforms, including people's ability to exercise their rights and freedoms online. The DSA also aims at limiting the negative impact of the most powerful online platforms on people and puts limits on how EU Member States can interfere with people’s free expression online.
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Two steps forward, one step back: DMA must do more to free people from digital walled gardens
The European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) report on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) makes improvements to the DMA but also includes serious loopholes that need to be fixed in trilogue
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Tinkering with keys weakens encryption
Politicians sometimes claim to have the solution to "the problem of encryption". They think encryption is important, but they also want the police to be able to read along. Therefore they propose to "just" add an extra key and "leave the encryption untouched". But is it?
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Why chat control is so dangerous
Fighting the dissemination of child sexual abuse material, the EU Commission is considering dangerous measures: the automated search of content on mobile phones and computers. See answers to the key questions regarding „chat control“ in Netzpolitik's overview.
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New Belgian data retention law: a European blueprint?
On 21 April 2021, the Belgian Constitutional Court canceled the country’s data retention law, which has allowed every Belgian’s telecom, location and internet metadata to be retained for 12 months, for its potential use in criminal investigations. The Belgian Constitutional Court followed the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) judgment released a few months earlier, which declared that practice of general and indiscriminate retention of personal data illegal (for the third time).
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Big brother at the Prague airport. The state refuses to explain how the biometric camera system works
When Václav Mach, collaborator of the Czech digital-legal organization, an EDRi member, Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) and law student at the University of Olomouc, asked the state for more detailed information on the use of smart biometric cameras at Prague's Václav Havel Airport, he obtained just general phrases. "They kept secret what they could. Their non-transparency doesn’t add to their credibility,“ he says in an interview with HlídacíPes.org. The article below is a summary of the more extensive interview, translated from Czech into English by EDRi member IuRe.
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Human Rights Groups Submit Complaint to European Ombudsman Calling for Investigation into EU Surveillance Aid
Privacy International (PI), together with 5 other human rights groups, has submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman calling for an investigation into EU surveillance aid to non-EU countries.
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Press “Accept” to let companies know every step you take
When you download a free app and accept their privacy statement, did you know that you may just have allowed data about your movement to be sold freely to anyone who’s willing to pay? EDRi's member Elektronisk Forpost Norge (EFN) shares more.
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The terrifying expansion of Sweden’s state surveillance
For the last couple of years the Swedish parliament has been expanding the surveillance capabilities of law enforcement. After the European Court of Justice struck down Sweden's data retention law, the national parliament passed a replacement that did nothing to address any of the issues criticized in the first law. If telecom providers were to challenge it, which no one has shown any willingness to do, it would most likely be struck down again.
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How a company illegally exploited the data of 14 million mothers and babies
If you’re in the UK you may know Bounty by the packs of samples they distribute to pregnant women at midwife apps. You might not know that they were also found to have illegally shared data of +14 million mums and babies with 39 companies. Bounty collected personal data from a variety of channels both online and offline: its website, mobile app.
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Final push needed for a strong ePrivacy Regulation
Today EDRi and 17 civil rights organisations reiterate our support for the much-needed efforts to upgrade Europe’s ePrivacy legislation.
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