Tag: Data Protection Reform

In an email exchange with Access, Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner-designate for Trade, declared to never have put into question the validity of the email acquired by our organisation through a Freedom of Information Act request, shedding light on the EU Home Affairs Department’s collaboration with the U.S. government to undermine EU privacy reform efforts.

In an email exchange with Access, Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner-designate for Trade, declared to never have put into question the validity of the email acquired by our organisation through a Freedom of Information Act request, shedding light on the EU Home Affairs Department’s collaboration with the U.S. government to undermine EU privacy reform efforts.

In an open letter sent today to Commissioner Malmström, Access requests the Commissioner-designate for Trade for immediate feedback on the aspersions she placed on the validity of the acquired document during yesterday’s hearing in the European Parliament.

Through a Freedom of Information Request, Access has acquired an important document that sheds light on the Home Affairs department of the European Commission’s relationship with the U.S. administration on the EU Data Protection Reform effort.

Today, the European Parliament adopted the Data Protection Regulation and Directive, commonly referred to as the Data Protection Reform Package (DPR). This vote represents another crucial step towards protecting European user data and the completion of the long-awaited reform proposed by the European Commission back in January 2012.

Today, the European Parliament adopted its report and recommendations stemming from its investigation of the mass surveillance programmes of the NSA and GCHQ on E.U. citizens. The report, which was drafted over the course of 15 inquiry hearings conducted by the European Parliament civil liberties (LIBE) committee, heard testimony about the impact of the programmes revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden on the fundamental rights of European citizens.

Today we celebrated the 33rd International Data Privacy Day by reminding members of the Council of the E.U. representatives of their obligation to protect the rights of European citizens. We sent a letter, signed by several European and International NGOs, outlining the importance of the rights to privacy and data protection and urging them to reach a conclusion on the General Data Protection Regulation without any further delay.

On February 9th, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) presented its long-awaited draft report on the impact of mass surveillance programmes on the rights of European citizens.

On the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the celebration of UN Human Rights day, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect upon the importance of privacy and data protection as key pillars of healthy societies.

As the European Parliament debates new data protection reforms,US technology companies have arrived in Brussels to commence an unprecedented lobbying effort aimed at preventing strong regulation and weakening existing standards. Most troublingly, some of the draft legislative proposals have been copied and pasted directly from lobbying documents, evidence of the immense influence of US giants like Google and Amazon on European policy.