Putting the brakes on Big Tech’s uncontrolled power
Will 2022 go down as the year the EU tamed Big Tech? In the very early morning hours of Saturday, 23 April, after 16 hours of final negotiations, EU lawmakers reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is certainly a watershed moment for our digital future. As the deal reached is a top-level political agreement, the final text of the law is yet to be released.
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Putting the brakes on Big Tech’s uncontrolled power
Will 2022 go down as the year the EU tamed Big Tech? In the very early morning hours of Saturday, 23 April, after 16 hours of final negotiations, EU lawmakers reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is certainly a watershed moment for our digital future. As the deal reached is a top-level political agreement, the final text of the law is yet to be released.
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Europol’s new powers will enable Big Data analysis and mass surveillance. We say NO!
The European Parliament is soon to vote on the new Europol reform which aims to expand the law enforcement agency’s powers without any accountability and with as few fundamental rights safeguards as possible. To influence the vote, EDRi has mobilised civil society organisations in a joint advocacy action of reaching out directly to members of the European Parliament to urge them to vote against the proposal.
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EU negotiators approve good DSA, but more work is needed to build a better internet
Friday night’s political agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA) is a good first step towards protecting people’s rights on the internet and to some extent limiting the immense power that Big Tech companies have over people and democracies.
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Internal documents revealed the worst for private communications in the EU; how will the Commissioners respond?
EDRi, Europe's biggest network for rights and freedoms across Europe and beyond, urge the European Commission to not put forward a CSAM proposal that would undermine the CJEU prohibition of general monitoring or subject Europeans to monitoring that would turn their devices into spyware.
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Policing: France proposes massive EU-wide DNA sweep, automated exchange of facial images
The French Presidency of the Council is seeking EU-wide comparisons of every DNA profile held by police forces against all those held by other national police forces, as well as EU policing agency Europol, as part of plans to upgrade the ‘Prüm’ network of police databases. It also hopes to automate the police exchange of facial images by eliminating requirements for human review.
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UK High Court rules blanket seizure of asylum seekers’ phones breached Article 8 ECHR
On 25 March 2022, the UK High Court ruled that the Home Office acted unlawfully and breached human rights and data protection laws by operating a secret, blanket policy of seizing, retaining and extracting data from the mobile phones of asylum seekers arriving by small boat to UK shores between April and November 2020.
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“Privacy Shield 2.0”? – First Reaction by Max Schrems
On March 25 Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Biden have announced an "agreement in principle" on a new EU-US data sharing system.
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The European Commission might put a stop to end-to-end encryption
The European Commission is working on a bill that requires platforms to monitor all your chats. This would undermine the essence of end-to-end encryption. What's up with that?
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Leaked opinion of the Commission sets off alarm bells for mass surveillance of private communications
A newly-revealed Opinion of a European Commission review board about their own colleagues’ upcoming proposal for a ‘Legislation to effectively tackle child sexual abuse’ shows strong concerns with the legislative proposal. Leaked by French media outlet Contexte yesterday (22 March), and dated 15 February 2022, the Opinion confirms the fears EDRi and 39 other civil society groups recently raised about the proposal which could destroy the integrity of private online communications across the EU, and set a dangerous precedent for the world.
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Private communications are a cornerstone of democratic society and must be protected in online CSAM legislation
On 17 March 2022, EDRi and 34 other civil society organisations jointly raised our voices to the European Commission to demand that the forthcoming EU ‘Legislation to effectively tackle child sexual abuse’ complies with EU fundamental rights and freedoms. We are seriously concerned that the draft law does not meet the requirements of proportionality and legitimacy that are rightly required of all EU laws, and would set a dangerous precedent for mass spying on private communications.
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Open letter: Protecting digital rights and freedoms in the Legislation to effectively tackle child abuse
EDRi is one of 52 civil society organisations jointly raising our voices to the European Commission to demand that the proposed EU Regulation on child sexual abuse complies with EU fundamental rights and freedoms. You can still add your voice now!
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Giropay knows what you bought last summer
A customer contacted noyb after seeing a detailed list of products she had ordered in an online pharmacy and a sex shop listed in her giropay account. Such data is specially protected under the GDPR and may not be processed without consent. noyb filed a complaint against giropay with the Hessian State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.
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