How it started, how it’s going: Halfway through the current European Commission’s legislative term
In January 2022, EDRi held a panel at its annual flagship event Privacy Camp to discuss the EU’s current legislative term and what to expect by the next EU elections in terms of digital rights.
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How it started, how it’s going: Halfway through the current European Commission’s legislative term
In January 2022, EDRi held a panel at its annual flagship event Privacy Camp to discuss the EU’s current legislative term and what to expect by the next EU elections in terms of digital rights.
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Chat control: 10 principles to defend children in the digital age
The automated scanning of everyone’s private communications, all of the time, constitutes a disproportionate interference with the very essence of the fundamental right to privacy. It can constitute a form of undemocratic mass surveillance, and can have severe and unjustified repercussions on many other fundamental rights and freedoms, too.
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Framing the future of the internet
The European Parliament has just voted on the Digital Services Act, crucial for internet regulation.
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Online Safety Bill: Kill Switch for Encryption
Of the many worrying provisions contained within the draft Online Safety Bill, perhaps the most consequential is contained within Chapter 4, at clauses 63-69. This section of the Bill hands OFCOM the power to issue “Use of Technology Notices” to search engines and social media companies.
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Orwell’s Wallet: European electronic identity system leads us straight into surveillance capitalism
In June 2021 the European Commission launched a reform of the 2014 eIDAS Regulation to overhaul Europe’s framework for electronic identity (eID) systems. This ambitious reform tries to create a counterbalance to the widespread login systems of Google, Facebook and Apple, as well as to provide widely-adopted eID systems for eGovernment and eCommerce applications to the population.
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A beginner’s guide to EU rules on scanning private communications: Part 2
Vital EU rules on human rights and on due process protect all of us from unfair, arbitrary or discriminatory interference with our privacy by states and companies. As we await the European Commission’s proposal for a law which we fear may make it mandatory for online chat and email services to scan every person’s private messages all the time, which may constitute mass surveillance, this blog explores what rights-respecting investigations into child sexual abuse material (CSAM) should look like instead.
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European Parliament approves rights-respecting DSA & proposes ban on use of sensitive personal data for online ads
Today's upcoming vote by the European Parliament's (EP) on the Digital Services Act (DSA) is expected to be a good step forward in protecting people’s rights on the internet, including freedom of expression and information, right to safety and the right to privacy, which EDRi has strongly and consistently advocated for.
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The EU’s own ‘Snowden Scandal’: Europol’s Data Mining
On 3 January 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), which supervises the processing of personal data by the EU’s law enforcement agency, Europol, ordered Europol to delete data held in its databases on individuals with no established link to criminal activity.
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Online surveillance thrives when fear takes over
European law-enforcement agencies have been pushing to end encryption and survey everyone’s online communications.
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E-evidence regulation: Why it matters for medical confidentiality?
Access to health data by foreign authorities in the context of a criminal investigation – be it intentional or not – needs to be carefully regulated as it also impacts doctors’ legal and ethical duties.
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Opinion on the Passenger Name Record CJEU case
In Case-817/19, Belgium’s Constitutional Court has asked the EU Court of Justice whether the PNR Directive (2016/681) is compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The hope must be that the Court will stand up for the rights of individuals, enforce the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and declare the PNR Directive (like the Data Retention Directive) to be fundamentally in breach of the Charter.
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A beginner’s guide to EU rules on scanning private communications: Part 1
In July 2021, the European Parliament and EU Council agreed temporary rules to allow webmail and messenger services to scan everyone’s private online communications. In 2022, the European Commission will propose a long-term version of these rules. In the first installment of this EDRi blog series on online ‘CSAM’ detection, we explore the history of the file, and why it is relevant for everyone’s digital rights.
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