This article follows the publication of La Quadrature du Net’s investigation ʻCriminalization of encryption: the 8 december caseʼ. It has been signed by more than 130 individuals and organisations. The full list of signatories is available here. It has also been published on the website of the…

One single app to rent a hotel room, prove your age, your educational, financial or health certificates, or to access digital public and private services? Sounds convenient? Well, it is. But if done wrong, it will be equally easy for corporations, authorities or even bad actors to create highly…

Joint Civil Society Letter on the Removal of Commission Officials’ Details from the ‘Whoiswho’ Directory

Enabling civil dialogue sometimes boils down to simple things like access to contact details. Therefore, over 110 European civil society organisations signed a letter initiated by Civil…

The GDPR is five years old! This is well worth a drum roll because it marks the anniversary of a fairly uniform data protection standard in Europe. It is a Regulation and as such applicable in EU member states without the need for transposition into national law. And while its so-called “opening…

UN Cybercrime Convention – The Talks Continue

Back in January we published a blogpost explaining what to expect from the UN Cybercrime Convention negotiations in Vienna, Austria.

Now, the fifth round of talks (11 – 21 April 2023), held at the UN’s Vienna Office, has concluded. Tanja…

A very broad coalition of stakeholders has come together to publicly warn against introducing network fees via a joint statement. This includes many industries and sectors, consumers and civil society and a very broad alliance. It is accompanied by a supporting statement signed by a few MEPs.

 

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The new Austrian whistleblower protection bill leaves much to be desired. A recent press briefing held by Transparency International, Forum Informationsfreiheit and epicenter.works offered context and explained the bill’s considerable shortcomings and omissions. On 1st February the bill was debated…

The foundations for a Europe-wide digital identity system are just about to be laid. Will Europe get it right and lead on this important topic? Will the EU set a global standard for the protection of sensitive user information and digital identities? Unfortunately, in contrast to early promises,…

The rapid speed at which digital technologies are becoming increasingly connected and penetrate all areas of life also requires constant adaptation of legal regulations. This development also extends to the fighting of crime. Despite existing regulations at the regional level (for example, the…

Online platforms remain tricky terrain. How should we treat this quasi-public space, where anyone who has the necessary reach can speak to and mobilise thousands in the blink of an eye? To achieve something comparable in the analogue era, you needed a broadcast licence, and these licences were…