This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Geplantes britisches Telekommunikationsgesetz wirft Fragen auf

Some of the bills presented on 9 May 2012 in the Queen’s Speech, in which the Queen reads the government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary period in front of both Houses of Parliament, raise freedom of expression concerns.

HM the Queen confirmed the intention of the government to introduce the Communications Capabilities Development Programme, a government bill aimed at extending the surveillance of the electronic and telephone communications in UK.

“My government intends to bring forw

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Entscheidung des Europäischen Gerichtshofs in der Rechtssache Bonnier

Bonnier Audio took the Swedish Internet service provider (ISP) Perfect Telecommunication to court, to obtain an order to disclose the identities of alleged infringers of their intellectual property (IP) rights.

Ruling

Bonnier Audio took the Swedish Internet service provider (ISP), Perfect Telecommunication, to court to obtain a court order to disclose the identities of alleged infringers of their intellectual property (IP) rights. As a result, the Swedish High Court asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) if, assuming such a measure was proportionate, a Member State could introduce legislation which would require telecommunications data to be made available for such purposes. More specifically, would such a national measure be in breach of the Data Retention Directive?

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: UK: Innenministerium plant neue Überwachungsmaßnahmen

The Communication Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) proposed by UK coalition, meant to extend the police’s access to individuals' email and social media traffic data, is facing strong criticism from the opposition and civil liberties campaigners.

CCDP is likely to be part of Queen's speech on 9 May and relies on ISPs to gather the information and allow government intelligence operatives to scrutinise it.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Frankreich: Biometrie-Datenbank verfassungswidrig

The French Constitutional Council found the law proposing the introduction of a new biometric ID for French citizens as unconstitutional.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: EU – USA: Bekenntnis zu Privatsphäre und Datenschutz

At the 28 November 2011 EU-US Summit, President Obama and Presidents Van Rompuy and Barroso announced that the US and the EU are determined to finalise negotiations on a comprehensive EU-US data privacy and protection agreement. On 19 March 2012, a High Level Conference on Privacy and Protection of Personal Data took place to discuss commercial data privacy questions, held simultaneously in Washington and Brussels.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Deutscher Bundesverfassungsgerichtshof entscheidet über Zugriff auf p...

According to the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) on 24 February 2012, the law enforcement authorities must no longer request personal data unless justified by special conditions.

The court found that certain provisions in the present Federal Telecommunications Act concerning the disclosure of telecom user data to law enforcement agencies violated the German constitution and decided that the requests of personal data by the law enforcement