Schlagwort: english

In India, a new law allows companies to access the government biometrics database. Despite a court ruling, linking to income tax returns becomes mandatory. Mistakes in social services have already led to starvation deaths. A planned data protection bill is on hold.

The EU wants to more closely control the trade of the European surveillance industry with autocratic regimes. After two years of tough negotiations, the member states have found a „compromise“: they are against anything that could limit the trade of spyware. Germany agreed as well.

New rules for Google, Facebook and Twitter

The Digital Services Act could replace the decades-old framework of the e-Commerce Directive, a note by the European Commission suggests. The document outlines a complete overhaul of the rules governing the net.

Smart speakers like Alexa not only store the voices of their registered users, but also those of children and unsuspecting guests. This constitutes a legal problem, says a report commissioned by the German parliament.

Claudio Agosti wants to know what Facebook does with him. The programmer has developed a browser extension that collects data donations from users. He wants to decipher why we only get to see very specific political news – and what Facebook is hiding from us in their News Feed.

A proposed law on electronic evidence gathering could give prosecutors easy access to user data on servers across the EU. The German government is concerned that it could weaken safeguards against political meddling in the justice system.

M-Pesa is a Kenyan system for cashless payment. This business model of the Kenyan communications provider Safaricom is built on the transfer of data. Now, employees of the provider have also leaked the personal information of 11.5 million users. The case ends up in court.

The United States is officially charging Julian Assange for hacking, a crime seemingly perfect for extradition. However, the US Attorney’s Office is also investigating him for „obtaining and disseminating secret information“, punishable by death. That is what the Department of Justice wrote in a letter we now publish.

Nowhere to hide: To identify and target you on Facebook and Instagram, advertisers constantly share your data with Facebook.

Online shops and marketers routinely share customer data with Facebook to reach them with targeted advertising. Turns out: in many cases this is illegal. A ground-breaking decision by a German Data Protection Authority recently ruled that matching customers’ email addresses with their Facebook accounts requires their explicit consent.

Commission officials led by Martin Selmayr talked Brexit with German lobbyists. Behind closed doors, the Commission says they will not take emergency measures to protect UK businesses from data protection trouble following a no-deal exit. Rights campaigners see a no-deal Brexit as an opening to fight surveillance.

The social network company killed its own Aquila drone programme last year. But Facebook has not quit plans to spread internet across the globe. We publish a document that shows Facebook is working with European defence giant Airbus on drone-based connectivity.

Autonomous cars are not a sink-or-swim option

Europe has to drastically lower emissions within a dozen years to stall catastrophic levels of warming. Tech companies and the auto industry promise innovation to cut traffic and energy consumption. But even autonomous and electric vehicles won’t save us from drowning.

Pink Floyd Another Brick in the Wall Artwork

Metallica fired the first shot in the epic battle over copyright enforcement on the internet. 20 years later, Brussels fights over Another Brick in the Wall. EU copyright reform could change everything, even Despacito. We made you a mixtape on the controversial law.

Since 2016, the European Union has been working on proposals to implement stricter controls on the export of surveillance technology outside the EU. However, internal documents now prove that certain Member States – especially Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom – are succumbing to pressure from business interests. As a result, human rights safeguards are being diluted.

The social media giant has evidently not buried its plans for high altitude connectivity. Facebook and Airbus discussed Zepyhr drones at a meeting with a senior official in Brussels.

We talked to anthropologist and documentary filmmaker Adam Fish about the new possibilities small civilian drones offer for documentary, environmental and activist projects. The drones give us an unique view of the world but at the same time they can lead to an unprecedented form of surveillance.

2018 will be a pivotal year for the internet. For the first time in human history, over half of the world’s population will be online. But new threats threaten the sustainability of the world’s largest information source.

In our interview, media scholar and political economist Rachel O‘Dwyer explains how companies and governments promise to connect those without a bank account to the global economy. She warns about the convergence of social media and payment infrastructures, where ever more data points are connected and used to decide on the life of individuals. Cash still has a role to play, she argues.

Welcome to our highlights of net political news from Germany, week 47. Who wins the contracts? The computer scientist Martin Tschirsich has examined ten products from various manufacturers of communal information systems. The software is used for the administration, manages citizens data and other information the city or municipality processes. They often play a part […]

Welcome to our highlights of net political news from Germany, week 46. EU to strengthen consumer protections while introducing contested blocking measures. The European parliament has passed a bill to protect European consumers with last-minute additions of contested net block censorship measures. Meanwhile, privacy activist Maximilian Schrems‘ class action suit against Facebook, to shore up […]

english

India expands its controversial biometrics database Aadhaar

EU states unanimously vote against stricter export controls for surveillance equipment

Leaked document: EU Commission mulls new law to regulate online platforms

Facebook’s Algorithm Shapes Our Lives. This Hacker Wants to Find Out How.

Germany fears new EU law could endanger climate activists and journalists

Kenya: Data from 11.5 million customers of a provider end up on black market

WikiLeaks: The US is indeed investigating Assange for publishing secret information, DOJ letter suggests

Facebook Custom Audience illegal without explicit user consent, Bavarian Data Protection Authority rules

EU says „no contingency plans“ for data flows in case of no-deal Brexit

Facebook and Airbus hold secretive drone tests in the Australian bush

Self-driving cars won’t save us from the climate abyss

From Beethoven to Despacito: Five Songs explain EU copyright reform

Surveillance exports: How EU Member States are compromising new human rights standards

Facebook and Airbus jointly lobby EU Commission on drones, email shows

NPP149: Civilian Drones – Who should be allowed to fly where?

In Censoring Wikipedia in Turkey, We Are Censoring Our Collective Knowledge

„Who owns the infrastructure becomes important“: Digital payments, scoring and blockchains in the Global South

This week @netzpolitik.org, #47: Surveillance and Savants

This week @netzpolitik.org, #46: consumer friendly network blocks