100 posts
More information on our privacy policy changes
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Last night we received a letter from the Jacob Kohnstamm, Chairman of the Europe's Article 29 Working Party, asking for additional information about the changes to our privacy policy. We briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks...
The Inventory
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January is obviously a month during which various plans for 2012 are being made by the European institutions. Also the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) published today his priorities for the coming year as far as legislative initiatives are...
Princess Caroline vs. German glossy BUNTE
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A decision in the field of freedom of expression versus personality right by Germany's highest court the Federal Constitutional Court otherwise known as Bundesverfassungsgericht or "BVerfG" has caught this Kat's eye (case reference: 1 BvR 927/08). No...
This Is Medieval! We Can Do Better!
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Today’s Digital Agenda Summit from The Lisbon Council proved to be both an eye opener and perplexing. As someone with an above average understanding of digital issues it was a real worry just how much more complex the main issue being discussed...
PNR, SWIFT… va-t-on vers un armistice entre les Etats-Unis et l’Union européenne ?
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Il faut sortir de l’impasse, la guérilla dure depuis longtemps, comment y mettre fin ? C’est là tout le problème et l’enjeu des différentes rencontres. Cela dure depuis longtemps, la preuve le nombre d’articles consacrés par Nea say à...
E-Privacy Directive Regulations Bring New Cookie Rules to the European Union Effective May 25, 2011
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BBC News reports in New net rules set to make cookies crumble, that:"From 25 May, European laws dictate that 'explicit consent' must be gathered from web users who are being tracked via text files called 'cookies'....The changes are demanded by the...
New European Commission proposal on the use of PNR data in the fight against terrorism
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The proposal aims to harmonise Member States’ provisions on obligations for air carriers, operating flights between a third country and the territory of at least one Member State, to transmit PNR data to the competent authorities for the purpose of...
EU to create "right to be forgotten"
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As the public's concern over internet privacy violations on sites like Facebook continues to grow, the EU unveiled new proposals yesterday to give people more control over how their online personal data is collected and used. The new update to EU pri...
European Parliament debates EU-US data protection agreement
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Europeans and Americans are trying to overcome their data protection differences via a possible police and judicial co-operation agreement. At a Civil Liberties Committee hearing on Monday, MEPs debated a draft negotiating brief proposed by the Commi...
Don’t be evil? Video mocking Google’s views on privacy
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A nice video parodying Google’s policy regarding its views on privacy. The video is starring Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. As a background information, remember that when he was asked during an interview for on CNBC’s about whether Int...
Privacy challenges facing the European Union from ACTA
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Since the early ‘70s, European countries have adopted a comprehensive legal framework on personal data protection that aims to balance the free flow of information for market purposes with an adequate level of protection for the right of privacy.
Cookie compliance: privacy regulators make the best of a bad law | Pinsent Masons LLP
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Cookie compliance: privacy regulators make the best of a bad law | Pinsent Masons LLP...
ECJ rules on reconciling data protection law with freedom of information law | Pinsent Masons LLP
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ECJ rules on reconciling data protection law with freedom of information law | Pinsent Masons LLP...
Church Sexual Abuse in Belgium: Respecting Privacy or Punishing Those Responsible?
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In a previous post, Alexandra wrote about sexual abuse by members of the Church and possibly relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. I will follow up on that post in this one. The past week, the Belgian authorities have upped the ant...
Politically motivated surveillance in US, ACLU reports..
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ACLU: America is riddled with politically motivated surveillance from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow A new ACLU report, “Policing Free Speech: Police Surveillance and Obstruction of First Amendment-Protected Activity,” documents recent case...
New Restrictive Decisions of the ECJ on Access to Documents
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There are two new decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union that deal with the Access to Documents Regulation. Both decisions repeal earlier decisions of the General Court (former Court of First Instance), and are more restrictive in th...
SWIFT II: European Data Protection Supervisor's Report to Council
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The European Data Protection Supervisor yesterday sent a report (PDF) on the SWIFT II agreement (or TFTP agreement) to the Council. Given the criticism of the agreement from Parliament (though there is recent news of some agreed compromise), the EDPS...
SWIFT Agreement Signed
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The agreement on the transfer of bank data between the EU and the US was signed at last, after a protracted period of negotiations. But the really interesting part has been the decisive role of the European Parliament that refused in February to appr...
Big Brother a deux têtes
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Le parlement Européen a adopté une déclaration “sur la création d’un système d’alerte [...] contre les pédophiles“, qui comporte dans les passages en petit caractère une invitation à stocker les informations relative a...
Concern regarding Penis recognition on Chatroulette
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With traffic to the chat site Chatroulette decreasing due to surfers not necessarily enjoying being confronted with sudden penis apparitions at every screen change, the owner of the site (who seems to receive advice from Shawn Fanning, the founder of...
SWIFT II Sent to Council and Parliament
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The new SWIFT agreement (or the "Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme") has been reached between the Commission and the US, and the agreement has been sent to the Council and Parliament for assent. Green MEP Jan Albrecht has written about the new agr...
First Swift Agreement approved between the US and the EU
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MEP Jan Albrecht posted the agreement on his blog. Read it here. Earlier this week Commissioner Malmström had said that the talks had yielded “considerable improvements” over an interim deal that was rejected by the Parliament in February. Malms...
Draft EU-US SWIFT agreement published
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Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht has published the draft EU-US SWIFT agreement formally sent to EU parliamentarians today. According to Albrecht, the agreement still contains many issues already criticised in the last version rejected by MEPs earlier...
If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear... I'm frightened
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Mr Puddleduck points me to a very scary innovation,A US judge has ordered Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan to wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet.[...] an alcohol-monitoring bracelet.The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (Scram) bracelet works...
