At 18:30 this evening in Strasbourg, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) held a critical vote on the long-awaited Data Protection Regulation. The outcome of the vote sends a clear message that the Parliament is unprepared to put in…
21 October 2013
During the 5th hearing of Civil Liberties (LIBE) committee inquiry on massive electronic surveillance held on October 3rd, members of the European Parliament have condemned the “deplorable conduct” of the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) after their chief Sir Iain Lobban declined the invitation to collaborate to the investigations.
…7 October 2013
On September 5th, the LIBE Committee held the first of a series of hearings as part of the inquiry on “Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizen”s established on July 10 by the Libe Committee. The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate into the NSA and other surveillance programmes, and examine whether those programmes are compatible with EU law. …
13 September 2013
Over the last few weeks, nearly every day has brought with it a new disclosure in the NSA surveillance scandal: a new target uncovered or a new foreign government intelligence agency found to be complicit. Yet, with limited public outcry in the United States, one can’t help but wonder if — and why — citizens of other Western democracies may be more offended over this spying than Americans themselves. But Despite the differences in public expectations, will these disclosures, and ensuing outcry, lead to concrete (and much needed) reforms on privacy? (English translation of article published in German in Frankfurter Allgemeine on August 10, 2013).…
21 August 2013
Details of the recently revealed large-scale, secret United States surveillance programs, the collection of Verizon users’ metadata and PRISM, are still emerging. However, from the information available, it is clear that while the programs rest on dubious legal ground under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), they are both unconstitutional.…
18 June 2013
Marie Ehrlin, newly-elected Chairman of the Board, told reporters at TeliaSonera’s annual shareholder meeting that the company would bring in outside help to review their operations “country by country, transaction by transaction, and deal by deal” after a year of bruising human rights and corruption allegations. For some, this response is not enough.…
5 April 2013
It’s not just a style thing: you may have good reason to avoid the geek at the bar or in the park wearing Google’s latest invention, the wearable interface known as Glass. Despite its innocuous intent, the life-logging feature ‘Life Bits’ logs everyone who comes into direct contact with the Glass wearer, transforming them into a mobile recording device.…
3 April 2013
Access welcomes the announcement of a new collaboration between the Telecommunications Industry Dialogue on Freedom of Expression and Privacy, and the Global Network Initiative. Beginning with a two-year trial, this collaboration holds the potential for meaningful engagement that yields more rights-respecting policies and actions in the telecoms sector.…
12 March 2013
The Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament recently voted through its Opinion on the Data Protection Regulation, sending a clear message to European citizens that a majority of the Committee believes the interests of large corporations should trump the protection of their fundamental right to privacy.…
27 February 2013
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.…
26 February 2013
The order sets out provisions for sharing critical threat information from government to the private sector, but potentially establishes a foundation for later bidirectional sharing of sensitive information. Its vague categorization of what constitutes critical infrastructure limits transparency on threat reduction, and may hinder confidence building measures intended to mitigate cyber conflict. It offers some civil liberties protections, but doesn’t go far enough.…
13 February 2013