EDRI - Camera surveillance

Press release: EDRi and FREE urge European Parliament to bring an end to lawless surveillance

joe — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 09:49:44 +0000

Civil society groups European Digital Rights (EDRi) and the Fundamental Rights European Experts Group (FREE) have demanded an end to lawless spying on individuals around the globe. At a meeting with the Chair of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee today, the two groups handed over a document (pdf) containing detailed analysis of the current European and US legal frameworks. The document will be submitted to all relevant policy-making and governmental bodies.

In light of recent revelations, which have profoundly undermined trust in online communications tools, there is an urgent need for transparency, predictability and proportionality.

UK: Vehicle plate recognition video system ruled illegal

bogdan — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:48:17 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: GB: Automatische Kennzeichenerfassung illegal

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), UK's data protection authority, issued on 24 July 2013, an Enforcement Notice asking the Hertfordshire police to stop using a vehicle plate tracking system that it considered as unlawful.

The ICO notice is a result of a complaint made in June 2013 by No CCTV, Privacy International and Big Brother Watch against the so-called “Ring of Steel” of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras around the small town of Royston which is tracking all cars entering or leaving the town.

The data col

Freedom Not Fear 2012

bogdan — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:33:41 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Freiheit statt Angst 2012

The 4-day "Freedom Not Fear 2012" (FNF 2012) event came to a successful end on Monday, 17 September 2012.

Two years into the Stockholm Programme: on the way to e-Fortress Europe?

bogdan — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:30:28 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Zwei Jahre Stockholm Programm: Europa auf dem Weg zu einer elektronisc...

It has been two years now since the Stockholm Programme - a 5-year plan for Justice and Home Affairs - was adopted. On 24 November 2011, an experts' and activists' round table, organised in the European Parliament, raised the question whether Europe was on its way to an e-Fortress.

INDECT - privacy ethics in a secret project

bogdan — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:06:29 +0000

This article is also available in:
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.

French Constitutional Court: No to police access to private space CCTV

bogdan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:37:34 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Französisches Verfassungsgericht: Nein zu Polizeizugriff auf CCTV im ...

On 25 February 2010, the French Constitutional Council gave its decision on the appeal made by a group of more than 60 senators and 60 deputies against the law reinforcing the fight against gang violence and the protection of people under public service missions.

The appeal was referring to three articles of the law.

Italy: The Anopticon project - putting surveillance back in its place

bogdan — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:38:01 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Italien: Das Anopticon Projekt – wie Überwachung in seine Schranken...

Nowadays, CCTVs are the practical implementation of the "Panopticon", theorised in 1791 by Jeremy Bentham as the "ideal prison", one that keeps people in place by using their natural fear of being surveilled.

The Anopticon project is a reaction to the huge rise in CCTVs installations in Italian cities. Information on CCTVs - where they are, what they point at, which area is being surveilled - is collected by members of the project and put online, publicly accessible via the "Big Brother Viewer".

Stockholm programme - the new EU dangerous surveillance system

bogdan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:23:23 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Das Stockholmprogramm – das neue gefährliche Überwachungssystem de...

Civil rights groups are worried about a new EU proposal that would enhance a "dangerously authoritarian" European surveillance and security system that will include ID card register, Internet surveillance systems, satellite surveillance, automated exit-entry border systems operated by machines reading biometrics and risk profiling systems.

On 15 June 2009, EU justice ministers discussed on the so called Stockholm programme trying to set up the first EU "domestic security strategy for the EU", by the end of this year.

House of Lords Constitution Committee report on surveillance and privacy

bogdan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:29:15 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The report Surveillance: Citizens and the State recently issued by the House of Lords Constitution Committee supports privacy and considers executive and legal limits must be imposed to surveillance and data collection.

The report is a positive step in the promotion of individual freedom and liberty and offers some recommendations in this direction.

One of the recommendations, following a suggestion from the UK Computing Research Committee's, is that the encryption of personal data should be mandatory in some circumstances and that the Government should introduce appropriate regulations in this sense.

Austria: Some EU data protection policy developments in 2008

bogdan — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:23:21 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

In Austria the international data protection day on 28 January will pass by widely unrecognised. This year, as already in 2008, the Data Protection Commission (DSK; the Austrian Data Protection Authority) and the Data Protection Council (DSR; a political advisory board) will together organise a meeting for a strictly limited amount of interested persons (max. 100 participants) where they will present European and international developments in data protection. In contrary to 2008, where they were confronted with by far more than 100 registrations, the event was promoted very poorly.