netzpolitik.org in english: en

A portrait photograph of Katarzyna Szymielewicz

We talk with Katarzyna Szymielewicz, president of the Polish NGO Panoptykon Foundation. How has the situation for digital rights changed since Donald Tusk took over the country’s government? What’s happening at the country’s Eastern border? What’s the state of the investigation into Pegasus? And are we all sitting in a sinking ship?

Markéta Gregorová standing at a guardrail with a view of a city behind her.

We talked to Markéta Gregorová, currently the only Pirate delegate in the EU Parliament, about what she hopes to achieve in the next five years. She will continue her work on external security, especially Ukraine and China, and will keep tabs on chat control.

a silver shopping cart filled with blue and red booklets looking like passports

For weeks, the personal data of thousands of people was openly available on a data marketplace. It was only after we had alerted the Belgian company that they took the data offline. People from several countries were at high risk of data misuse and fraud.

A young woman shows something to an old man on a phone. They have a laptop in front of them.

The EU’s Next Generation Internet programme has supported free, open source software for years. But now a silent death seems to be looming: An internal document suggests that financing may soon end. Developers are surprised and call for the programme’s survival.

Who we are

netzpolitik.org is a medium concerned with digital rights and freedoms. Most of our work is published in German, but occasionally translated into English. We address issues at the intersection of Internet, society and politics, and show ways in which people can be empowered to advocate for digital rights themselves. We describe how politics is changing the Internet through regulation and how the Internet is changing politics, public sphere, and everything else.

We critically accompany all areas of society in which a process of digitalization is taking place, from big data corporations and state security agencies, to education, media and environment. We aim to put technological change in the service of freedom, solidarity and the common good. We see ourselves as a journalistic website, but we are not neutral. Our stance is: We are committed to digital freedom rights and their political implementation.

Our work has been distinguished with numerous awards.

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Stefan Berger und Markus Ferber sitting in a committee room of the EU Parliament. Berger is arguing, Ferber listening.

The European Parliament is negotiating a law on the Digital Euro – until now, with no result. Leading the negotiations is the European People’s Party. The party has established connections to banks, which are critical of the project. We’re publishing a complaint from other Parliament groups.

A lonely road in the dark. Fog. In the background, columns of numbers in the sky - coordinates.

The AdTech industry is torpedoing the privacy of millions of people in Germany and is a threat to national security. But the underlying problem is global: databrokers sell location data without sufficient control. This is the summary of a joint research by netzpolitik.org and BR.

A person with long hair on a small round planet cleaning the floor full of smartphones

AI and content moderation would be impossible without the labor of millions of data workers. In a new project, these workers share their stories: from platform workers in Venezuela and Syria to employees of outsourcing companies in Kenya and content moderators in Germany.

A waiter's cloche with metal cupola stands on a table, closed.

Member states are negotiating rules for the planned digital currency, in particular exemptions from surveillance for offline transactions. A planned „single access point“ is a cause for concern, but additional privacy rules are also on the table. We publish working documents from recent months.

A piece of cheese with holes in the shape of the euro symbol, lying on a blue board with a small cutting knife next to it.

Eighty per cent of all EU citizens should be using a digital wallet by 2030. A group of experts is working on the technical details for this. Because it is not adhering to the legal requirements, it is now being criticised by civil rights activists.

People in suits sit around a negotiating table, an oversized smartphone showing a padlock in the middle

The EU member states are unable to agree on a position on chat control today. The Council Presidency has removed the vote from the agenda because it does not have a sufficient majority. This means that Belgium has failed, and the presidency now goes to Hungary.

Surveillance Eye looking at a person writing a letter.

The planned chat control makes the world less secure and more authoritarian, as it is directed against private and encrypted communication. Proponents are using disinformation, lies, and sleight of hand to push through the project. But chat control can still be stopped. A commentary.

Prompt: police man looking at a computer, encryption sign with padlock, ciphers, code, illustration, --ar 16:9 Job ID: 089c33d3-053b-4006-a205-a15e4b63ca15

Most EU member states welcome the demands of a group of experts for more surveillance. The panel was criticized in advance for being biased and one-sided. Nevertheless, there is hardly any opposition to the panel’s recommendations, as a secret protocol that we are publishing shows.

The right wing dominates the polls, Volt makes gains. The clear losers are the Greens – and the Pirates. Anja Hirschel, heir to Patrick Breyer, misses her entry into Parliament. The Czech Pirates also drop to a single seat.

People on the move face dehumanizing and discriminatory treatment at Europe’s borders. Yet, the EU continues to fund projects that aim to automate these practices with the help of AI and by this exacerbates the plight of migrants. An interview with Antonella Napolitano and Fabio Chiusi.

Person holding AirTag in one and phone in other hand. Phone shows some map with location indicator.

AirTags can be super useful. But in women’s shelters they’re deadly. Topics such as stalking are a new thing for the standards organization IETF. But this is what was needed when discussing a standard for location trackers. Mallory Knodel says the IETF should be proud of itself to be expanding its mandate.

Gravestone showing European stars and a mastodon.

EU institutions are active on Mastodon and Peertube servers, thanks to a pilot project run by the European Data Protection Supervisor. But they’ll be shut down in May – because nobody wants to be responsible for them.

Illustration im Bauhaus-Stil. Zu sehen sind unter anderem ein Flugzeug, die Umrisse einer Person und ein Ausweis.

A data broker is offering sensitive passport data of thousands of people for sale – and publishing some of it openly online. Our investigation leads to an airline as a possible source. Data protection authorities are alarmed.

A wall of glowing red rectangles, in front of it the shadow of a person

Warfare is becoming digitalized and automated. This is shifting the role of citizens within the Geneva Conventions. We urgently require new solutions and international agreements.

Headphones on Russia flag with audio track, symbolic photo Taurus wiretapping affair

The German Taurus leak shows one thing very clearly: encrypted and secure communication does not work for the few. Instead, it must become the standard for everyone.

A red traffic light, with a blue sky in the background.

The planned Directive on Platform Work was supposed to be done, but now there are new problems: EU member states did not agree with the trilogue compromise, endangering the whole project.

Wrapped christmas presents with dark lighting

A document from the AI Act trilogue shows what member states were hoping to push through: Automated classification of people by race, emotion recognition, biometric analysis of video recordings. In some parts, the outcome is still unclear.

Faces of people with IDs on their faces. An EU map with countries highlighted in color. Screenshot of a table showing advertising segments.

For targeted advertising, data brokers want to know about our bank accounts, children and illnesses. Our data research shows the dimension of this dubious business for the first time in a European country comparison. Experts call it a „catastrophe“.

Portrait of person in black blazer with crossed arms

TikTok is struggling to convince Western politicians it is not a security threat. But governments are right to ban the app from official devices, says China expert Rebecca Arcesati. Still she warns the biggest threat is Europe and the US giving up on their democratic values in dealing with TikTok.

The Internet does not forget? The opposite is the case. Huge mountains of data are lost on the internet every day. That’s why the Archive Team scours the vastness of the WWW and rescues data from extinction – around the clock and on a voluntary basis.

New Polish government: “No change has happened, absolutely none”

The EU Parliament's last Pirate: „You can make a change even if you are low in numbers“

Next Generation Internet: EU apparently set to end open source programme

Who we are

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Standstill in EU Parliament: How Conservatives are stalling the Digital Euro

Data Workers' Inquiry: The hidden workers behind AI tell their stories

EU Council discusses Digital Euro: And how much privacy should it be?

EUDI Wallet: A wallet full of loopholes

Victory, for now: No Majority on Chat Control for Belgium

Client-Side-Scanning: Chat Control is Pure Surveillance State

Going Dark: EU States Push for Access to Encrypted Data and Increased Surveillance

European Election: German Pirates will not re-enter EU Parliament

Interview: AI at Europe’s Borders

Interview on location trackers: Google and Apple „are hoping to avoid being banned“

Mastodon and Peertube: EU closing up shop in Fediverse because nobody wants to run servers

European data broker: Sensitive passport data of Germans published online

"Artificial Intelligence": Automated Warfare and the Geneva Convention

Taurus leak: When it comes to privacy, it’s all or nothing

Platform Work: Member states torpedo workers‘ rights

AI Act: The Member States‘ Wish List

Interview: „TikTok’s power to say no is shrinking by the day“

Archive Team: Shutdowns don’t stop during the weekends