About: surveillance
French privacy watchdog takes action on government fingerprint database issues
The National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has decided to call the Ministry of the Interior to order after observing several failures in the proper maintenance of the automated fingerprint file (FAED).
How Europol’s reform enables ‘NSA-style’ surveillance operations
“More than 100 million”. That’s the number of encrypted messages that French and Dutch law enforcement announced they had collected after infiltrating Encrochat in 2020, a company selling encrypted communication services and devices.
Civil society, tech giants oppose Germany’s state Trojans plans
Companies and civil society organisations in Germany have opposed a planned expansion of the surveillance of sources and communications which provides for a more stringent application of the so-called state Trojan in an open letter published Thursday. EURACTIV Germany reports.
French government proposes more surveillance in new anti-terrorism bill
The French government presented its new anti-terrorism bill on Wednesday morning (28 April), a few days after a 36-year-old 'radicalised' Tunisian stabbed a police employee to death outside a police station in Rambouillet, southwest of Paris. EURACTIV France reports.
EU adopts law giving tech giants one hour to remove terrorist content
The European Parliament on Wednesday (28 April) formally adopted without a vote controversial legislation which forces online platforms to remove terrorist content within an hour of it being flagged.
France to decide whether to allow widespread retention of connection data
France's Council of State, the country's highest legal entity, is meeting on Friday (16 April) to finally decide whether to allow the widespread retention of connection data despite the Court of Justice in Luxembourg having already ruled against the practice several times. EURACTIV France reports.
Commission to ban ‘indiscriminate surveillance’ in leaked AI plans
The European Commission will seek to outlaw Artificial Intelligence systems used for "indiscriminate surveillance" operations as part of new prohibitions to be put forward next week.
Moria 2.0: The EU’s sandbox for surveillance technologies
The three camps of Lesvos, Old Moria, Moria 2.0 all tell a story of the multi-layered ecosystem which gives rise to the allure of quick fixes facilitated by technology. Yet the complexity of human movement is nothing but simple, writes Petra Molnar.
Germany places far-right AfD under state surveillance
Germany's domestic intelligence agency on Wednesday (3 March) classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a suspected extremist movement, meaning the party can now be subjected to state surveillance, EURACTIV Germany reports.
EU to restrict sale of cyber-surveillance goods to repressive regimes
Negotiators from the European Council and the Parliament have signed off on new export rules that restrict the sale of cyber-surveillance goods to worldwide regimes engaging in the repression of human rights. However, the text of the regulation on so-called...
EU states ponder means to access encrypted data
EU member states want more competences to be able to look into messages with end-to-end encryption, according to the draft Council decisions which has been made available to EURACTIV Germany.
EXCLUSIVE: Parliament documents reveal new biometric attendance system
The European Parliament is to test a biometric attendance register for MEPs taking part in meetings at its Brussels premises, internal documents seen by EURACTIV reveal learned. The move has provoked worry among privacy-conscious members of Parliament, who oppose the move to capture MEP fingerprint data.
Mass surveillance permitted only for national security concerns, EU court says
EU countries are permitted to carry out the indiscriminate transmission and retention of communications data only when there is a 'serious threat to national security', the bloc's highest court ruled on Tuesday (6 October).
EU nears conclusion on cyber surveillance export controls
EU negotiators are closing in a deal on new rules that would end the sale of cyber-surveillance technologies to autocratic regimes worldwide.
Council of Europe calls for greater oversight on intelligence community’s surveillance powers
The Council of Europe insists that there is an urgent need to provide "effective oversight" on the surveillance activities of international intelligence agencies and the threats to privacy that emerge as a result
Commission will ‘not exclude’ potential ban on facial recognition technology
The European Commission has not ruled out a future ban on the use of facial recognition technology in Europe, as the EU executive mulls the findings of a recent public consultation on Artificial Intelligence.
Schrems charts US surveillance pushback after ECJ ruling
Silicon Valley should seek to further distance itself from a culture of surveillance established by US law, Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems has said ahead of a key ruling on global data flows later this week.
Commission urged not to backtrack on EU spyware rules
The European Commission has been urged not to soften its stance on EU rules that would outlaw the export of cyber surveillance tools to despotic regimes worldwide, amid ongoing negotiations between the European Council and the Parliament on the new measures.
Privacy activists on COVID-19 surveillance: Either ineffective or questionable
In Germany and Austria, there are concrete ideas to monitor their citizens using Big Data, but to be truly effective, the methods would have to be deeply invasive. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Germany’s plans for automatic facial recognition meet fierce criticism
Germany's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer plans to use automatic facial recognition at 134 railway stations and 14 airports, according to a news report published on 3 January. Although official confirmation of the plan is still missing, an alliance between civil society and politicians has called for the banning of this surveillance technology. EURACTIV Germany reports.
NATO upgrades its ageing ‘eyes in the sky’
Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, signed a $1 billion contract to modernise NATO’s fleet of AWACS surveillance aircraft on Wednesday (27 November), striking a more optimistic note at a time of widening cracks in the transatlantic defence alliance.
EXCLUSIVE: Germany blocking EU plans to stop spyware trade with dictators
EU proposals to establish export restrictions on spyware are being held back by Germany, which has adopted an ambiguous stance on the plans, EURACTIV has learnt.
UK guilty of human rights abuse, ECHR finds in groundbreaking surveillance case
GCHQ, the British government's intelligence and security organisation, has breached human rights in its mass surveillance programme, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said in a landmark ruling on Thursday (13 September).