Peter Micek, Esq.

Update: SMS finally unblocked in Central African Republic

On June 25, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Obama administration is seeking to extend to EU citizens several privacy protections in U.S. law, which today are only available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. If the U.S. Congress follows through and passes legislation to this effect, Europeans will gain access to U.S. courts for certain privacy offences, for the first time.

Despite vocal and active campaigns by internet users in Mexico and around the world, the Mexican Congress approved a dangerous telecoms bill that increases surveillance and data retention while sanctioning mobile network shutdowns.

In the U.S., where Verizon has more than 100 million customers, the company continues to receive tens of thousands of government requests for user data every month, according to its latest transparency report.

On June 18, Telefónica published its 2013 Sustainability Report, to depict the company’s efforts to respect privacy, free expression, and other human rights, as well as social and environmental concerns, but fails to include many details.

Amongst the dangers faced by the USA FREEDOM Act—the surveillance reform legislation in the U.S. most likely to pass—as it moves from the House to the Senate, is the introduction of a mandatory data retention requirement.

Dangerously, the bill would allow police to access user data without a court order, even real-time and location information, and to shut down mobile and internet networks all without ever going in front of a judge.

The right to communicate is being curtailed across Central African Republic (CAR), under government mandated service restrictions meant to stop political protests.

Vodafone, the largest international mobile provider in the world, released today the most detailed transparency report ever.

Access reiterates its call to DHS to investigate censorship of Mexican political protest website