(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Findings of the Open Rights Group Election Observation Mission in Scotland and England The Open Rights Group (ORG) believes that the problems observed at the English and Scottish elections in May 2007 raise serious concerns regarding the suitability of e-voting and e-counting technologies for statutory elections. E-voting is a 'black box system', where the mechanisms for recording and tabulating the vote are hidden from the voter. This makes public scrutiny impossible, and leaves statutory elections open to error and fraud.
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/e-voting-main/
http://media.ito.com/kevinmarks/org_election_report.pdf

Article 29 Working Party Opinion 4/2007 on the concept of personal data

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

A new framework has been agreed by the 30 members of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) regarding the co-operation in the enforcement of privacy laws, updating a 27 year old statement (OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data).

The large volume of the data being exchanged across borders and the changes in the character of these exchanges having increased the risks to privacy for individuals have brought up the need for a better co-operation between authorities in charge with data protection.

The framework, included in the new OECD Recommendation on Cross-Border Co-operation in the Enforcement of Laws Protecting Privacy, developed by the

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

After a long and difficult period of negotiations, on 28-29 June 2007, final agreements were reached between EU and USA on the data regarding European financial transactions operated by Belgian consortium SWIFT and on the passenger name records (PNR) issue respectively.

Regarding the access to financial data from SWIFT, the US has committed to use any data received from SWIFT exclusively for counter-terrorism purposes, the data retention period being of 5 years.

SWIFT is also bound to "adequately" protect the privacy of data according to EU principles as laid out in 2000 and further more, from now on, all banks using SWIFT will have to inform their customers about any transfers of their

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Google has answered several questions related to its data protection standards addressed by the Article 29 Working Party, especially on the period after which the anonymisation of the search server logs can be obtained.

Initially Google announced in March 2007 a reduction of the retention period for data related to users and their searches to 18-24 months, but, after the Article 29 Working Party's letter, Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel at Google, accepted a period of 18 months. However, he also stated that the period could be extended to 24 months, depending on the implementation of the Data retention directive in some of the EU member states.

Google explained that the period is necessary to use for logs in their

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The legislative package on the Visa Information System (VIS) was adopted by the European Parliament and a political agreement was reached within the Justice and Home Affairs Council in the last couple of weeks. This means that the final steps have been adopted to create the biggest biometric database in the world.

The VIS Legislative package is formed by the VIS Regulation and the VIS Decision. The VIS Regulation will allow consulates and other competent authorities to start using the system when processing visa applications and to check visas. The VIS Decision will allow police and law enforcement authorities to consult the data under certain conditions that should ensure

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Privacy International (PI) has undertaken a study that reveals the privacy threats and rank the positions in this matter of key players on the Internet services market. The objective of the research is not only to point fingers but also to find out trends and emergent issues related to privacy on the Internet.

The report was issued by PI after a six-month investigation on the privacy practices covering search, email, e-commerce and social networking sites.

The methodology used included 20 main parameters among which data collection and processing, data retention, openness and transparency or responsiveness to customers' complaints.

Data was gathered from newspaper articles, privacy policies, blogs,

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The EU has adopted as its own law, with very little alterations, the so-called Prüm Treaty, signed on 27 May 2005 by Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Austria, which allowed the police forces of their countries to compare and exchange data more easily.

The new law, adopted by the European Parliament's report of Fausto Correia (PES, PT) and approved by the Council of Ministers during a meeting of the justice and home office ministers last week, gives the EU member-states three years to rewrite domestic laws in order to comply with it.

"Member states have to adopt legislation on the basis of the decision. They can copy and paste it, it is self-explaining, not like a Directive, which

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The Council of the European Union disscused again in its Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 12-13 June 2007 the Council Framework Decision on the protection of personal data processed in the framework of police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, without making any clear steps for its adoption or taking into consideration the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) comments.

The conclusions of the Council meeting note that the new framework decision will be based on the Council of Europe established minimum data protection principles set by the Convention of 28 January 1981 for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data and its