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Deutsch: Datenschutz-Richtlinie: Die Strategie der Europäischen Kommission

During the Conference organised on 16 September 2010 by the Lisbon Council Brussels on "Unleashing the digital single market", Vivane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission and Commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, announced, among other things, she would make a proposal for the future revision of the present Data Protection Directive.

In her speech, Mrs. Reding reinforced her beliefs expressed in October 2009 that Europe needed a Digital Single Market that would be beneficial for consumers and businesses alike and vowed to use EU justice policy to strengthen it.

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Deutsch: Freiheit statt Angst – Stoppt den Überwachungswahn!

For the fourth consecutive time, this year the International Action Day took place on 11 September under the motto "Freedom not Fear 2010 - Stop Surveillance Mania".

The events that took place in several European towns such as Berlin, Stockholm, Warsaw, Helsinki, Paris, Venice, Vienna and Luxembourg were organised and supported by a coalition of more than 150 organisations, including political parties, professional associations, trade unions and freedom activists.

What were the organisers asking for?

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Deutsch: Deutschland plant neues Gesetz zum Beschäftigtendatenschutz

Following several scandals during the last years related to the surveillance of employees in several companies, the German government has recently tabled a draft bill that would forbid employers to use hidden cameras or social networking websites to spy on employees.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the new law would be beneficial for both parties.

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Deutsch: INDECT – Datenschutzethik eines Geheimprojekts

A new document on ethical issues published by the INDECT European research project on public surveillance has once more attracted the scrutiny of the media. Previous allegations of secrecy were followed by an attempt to strengthen the project's Ethics Board. The new document however notes that addressing ethical concerns requires time that cannot be spent on research.

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Deutsch: Frankreich: Drohende Stigmatisierung von Roma durch OSCAR

The xenophobic anti-Roma campaign run by the French government following President Sarkozy's discourse at the end of July has led to the brutal dismantling of numerous Roma camps, and to the expulsion of 1 000 foreign Roma people from the country within the last month. How could this happen, given that most if not all of them are either from Romania or Bulgaria? As EU citizens since 1 January 2007, they should normally benefit from freedom of movement in the Union.

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Deutsch: Einstweilige technische Aufsicht für EU-US SWIFT Abkommen

As on 1 August 2010 the so-called Swift agreement allowing EU citizens' bank data to be transferred to US is to come into force, the European Commission will appoint an interim "technical" supervisor to oversee the searches of US authorities on European bank transactions as part of anti-terrorist investigations.

After having initially rejected the agreement in February 2010, the European Parliament accepted it in July 2010, imposing the appointment of an EU supervisor who will be able to block part or all the searches conducted by US authorities that go beyond the scope of the agreement, such as random searche

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Deutsch: Rumänische Regierung plant elektronische ID-Karten

The Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration (MAI) submitted for public consultation, in the middle of August 2010, a new draft Ordinance for issuing mandatory electronic ID cards for Romanians starting with 1 January 2011.

Even though the decision of having an electronic ID card was taken in 2002 by Ordinance 69/29.08.2002, the practical implementation has been postponed several times since then, due to financial difficulties.

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Deutsch: EU-Bürger gegen Google Street View

While Google intends to go on mapping localities in Europe through its Street View system, several EU countries continue to show reluctance to this service due to privacy issues.

In May 2010, Google was faced with big concerns in Germany after it had been revealed that Street View vehicles were collecting private data sent over Wi-Fi networks.