News and Research articles on European UnionGovernments have been barking at 'spying on friends'. Yet so far civil rights organisations and activists are those turning the heat on intelligence services and authorities by using the courts.
The French parliament has just decided to set up a Commission du numérique (Committee on digital affairs). This could change the course of European internet policy.
At the end of the week the EU Telecom Council will address net neutrality and the Connected Continent Regulation. Member states are disagreeing over net neutrality and the opponents of stricter protection might point now to the recent FCC vote favouring specialised services alongside standard internet access.
In a recent high-profile court case on data protection and freedom of expression, the European Court of Justice has forgotten that publicness needs to be protected from privatisation, argues Lorena Jaume-Palasi.
There are different reactions to the revelations of US whistleblower Edward Snowden. In Finland, civil society, industry and technical experts are alarmed and concerned about a potential case of ‘NSA envy’ at the Finnish Defense Ministry.
Germany’s largest telecommunications operator for the first time on 5 May 2014 published a ‘transparency report’ on surveillance requests by German authorities. Kirsten Gollatz reveals how this new statitical input fits into the larger picture.
A review of the recent economic literature aimed at empirically assessing internet users’ valuation of their personal data, suggesting possible limitations and pitfalls in the experiments, and drawing policy-oriented remarks focused on data portability.
The European Union’s Court of Justice has ruled against Google in a case in which a Spanish citizen, backed by his national data protection authority, wanted the company to remove search links to an old local newspaper story related to his bankruptcy. Jef Ausloos argues that implications should not be too extreme, but warns of the Court’s prioritising of data subjects over internet users.
It was a fail. At the 27th WIPO meeting in Geneva the European Commission and Council representatives did not agree on advancing work on copyright exemptions for libraries and archives.
On April 8, the European Court of Justice made a clear decision invalidating the EU data retention directive. Legal scholar Sebastian Leuschner hits the floor running with an op-ed on what this landmark decision means for national data retention laws.
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.
On Thursday April 3, the European Parliament voted in favour of a legislative package to protect network neutrality and abolish mobile roaming fees within the European Union. The decision may set off a serious struggle between EU Council and Parliament.
How can the European Union react to the revelations of mass collection of personal data by domestic or third country spying agencies? Researcher Carlo Piltz discusses the hot topic and proposes a way ahead.
Internet consumer protections were recently beefed-up in Croatia. Among other, the authorities streamlined the complaint procedures when it comes to poor internet connectivity. This week, the European parliament takes up the question of quality of internet services. Expect Croatia's policy to be discussed.
The European Commission just ran a consultation on the future of copyright in Europe. The response was an avalanche of opinions. In this open editorial, Sebastian Haunss imagines what's next.
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.
Drawing on the example of the US surveillance operation PRISM and its impact on European citizens’ right to privacy, the author discusses what an authoritative human rights-based response could look like.
The European Union is today seen as a ‘digital laggard’ which relies on divergent national regulation and whose digital policies lack coherence. This review looks back at internet policy making and makes a few prescriptions.
Turkish business leaders, internet researchers and the Council of Europe were quick to reply when Turkish President Abdullah Gül went on to sign a package of draconian internet laws on February 18. The new legislation matters, not only for Turkey.
The Netherlands is among the few countries that have put specific net neutrality standards in place. In this op-ed, Nico van Eijk verifies whether the rules are working or if they are just another example of symbolic regulation.