Managed by Bots: surveillance of gig-economy workers
WIE’s recent ‘Managed by Bots’ report demonstrates that opaque algorithms dictate almost every aspect of gig economy employees’ work, offering them limited visibility or avenues for redress when a decision is made about them.
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Managed by Bots: surveillance of gig-economy workers
WIE’s recent ‘Managed by Bots’ report demonstrates that opaque algorithms dictate almost every aspect of gig economy employees’ work, offering them limited visibility or avenues for redress when a decision is made about them.
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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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Romania uses the EECC Directive implementation to extend communication surveillance
A new proposal to extend communication surveillance and to intercept encrypted communications was hidden by the Romanian Government in the national implementation of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC Directive) and was passed without any discussion in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on 7 December 2021.
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Council and Parliament find provisional agreement on the Data Governance Act
On 30 November, the European Parliament and Council provisionally agreed on the final version of the Data Governance Act (DGA). The text, which will still require final approval by both institutions, is the first legislative element of the European data strategy to emerge in its final form. While the final text is yet to be published, here is an overview of the main elements of the Act.
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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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Italy introduces a moratorium on video surveillance systems that use facial recognition
On 1 December 2021, the Italian Parliament introduced a moratorium on video surveillance systems that use facial recognition technologies. This law introduces, for the first time in an EU Member State, a temporary ban for private entities to use these systems in public places or places accessible to the public. This moratorium is an important achievement: it recognises the dangers posed by technologies such as facial recognition to people's rights and freedoms. The moratorium will be in force until 31 December 2023 at the latest, unless a new law is introduced on the subject of biometric surveillance before that date.
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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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Press release: European Commission jumps the gun with proposal to add facial recognition to EU-wide police database
The European Commission has put forward a proposal to ‘streamline’ the automated sharing of facial recognition images and other sensitive data by police across the EU. What will be discarded in order to ‘streamline’ the process? Vital safeguards which are designed to protect all of us from state over-reach and authoritarian mass surveillance practices.
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UN Special Rapporteurs challenge EU’s counter-terrorism plans
Through their communication, the Special Rapporteurs demonstrate how several existing and foreseen EU security measures fail to meet the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality, enshrined in European and international laws (such as the Regulation on preventing the dissemination of Terrorism Content Online and the processing by Europol of sensitive data for profiling purposes). The fatal flaw lies in the use of broad and undefined terms to justify extensive interferences in human rights.
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EU ropes in intelligence agencies for enhanced border checks targeting Afghan nationals
Intensified border security checks targeting Afghan nationals have been agreed by the Council of the EU, with the procedures requiring the extraction of mobile phone data and significant coordination with national intelligence agencies – despite the EU having no competences in the realm of “national security”.
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Data Retention? Advocate General says “Asked and answered!”
After the 2020 landmark ruling (La Quadrature du Net and others), one would have hoped that the Court had provided sufficiently clear conclusions with regards to the legality of data retention regimes in the EU. Nonetheless, the three referring national courts maintained their requests for preliminary rulings.
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New German government calls for European ban on biometric mass surveillance
The newly-agreed German government coalition has called for a Europe-wide ban on public facial recognition and other biometric surveillance. This echoes the core demands of the Reclaim Your Face campaign which EDRi has co-led since 2020, through which over 65 civil society groups ask the EU and their national governments to outlaw biometric data mass surveillance.
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