News on Privacy & Security

The European Court of Justice today decided against the EU legislator and declared the data retention directive of 2006 null and void. A historic judgement, many parties say, and it means that implementations have to be rolled back all over Europe.

The European Parliament has voted for a single data protection standard in the Union and passed both a regulation and a directive today. The Parliament wants to push the package (containing these two instruments), but has now to wait for member states to come to grips over their position.

Early warnings by German government officials at the Munich Security Conference proved true. On February 3, the International League of Human Rights in Germany, together with the Chaos Computer Club and civic group digitalcourage filed a criminal complaint against the German government for not acting on the mass surveillance by intelligence

On January 23, EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers met informally to harmonise their positions on the future European Data Protection Regulation. Broad consensus was reached on international aspects. Yet, the group missed a chance to move the package into the fast lane.

It is difficult to argue against measures that could prevent a 9/11-like attack in the US. However, many in the EU remain concerned about privacy and fundamental rights in general after the Snowden revelations. Conclusions from politicians on both sides illustrate the divergence.

The EU Data Retention Directive - which requests the retention of communication data of EU Citizens - is “as a whole incompatible” with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights , determines Europe's top lawyer. What happens now?

“Digital” is written big in the coalition agreement , which was signed to give way to the new German government. Will this propell Germany onto the front seat in international internet politics.

Technical standardisation is caught up in politics. At the 88th IETF meeting starting today in Vancouver engineers discuss reactions to mass surveillance.

The European Civil Liberties Committee LIBE is pushing the EU data protection regulation draft forward. Yet, many compromises are made along the way, leaving Europeans wondering who will be the good, the bad and the ugly in the data protection saga.