Policy Observatory

Between 15th-19th of September, in the week leading up the first year anniversary of the 13 Necessary and Proportionate Principles, EDRi, the EFF and the coalition behind the Principles will be conducting a Week of Action explaining some of the key guiding principles for surveillance law reform.

In preparation of the next Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which will be held in Istanbul on 2-5 September 2014, the European Commission organises an exchange views with civil society and invited us to participate in a webinar on 7 August. The IGF is a platform where activists, industry, academics and policy-makers discuss and develop solutions to Internet governance problems.

More than 20 digital and civil rights organizations have endorsed a joint statement calling on world leaders political leaders not to expand surveillance measures in wake of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy.

The European Commission published on 6 May its strategy for 2020 and the setting up of the Digital Single Market. Several important digital issues are concerned by this agenda: from copyright to crime, from telecommunications to VAT harmonisation. While La Quadrature du Net welcomes the Commission's engagement with these issues, it does this only with caution as previous attempts were harmful to the protection of fundamental rights.

The European Commission's strategy already started with the proposal on personal data protection and the proposal on telecommunications. These two currently negotiated regulations raise serious concerns on the risks they represent to a number of fundamental principles of the Internet and the right of personal data protection.

Tomorrow, U.N. Human Rights Council will deliver its official response to the 348 recommendations received during the second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the U.S. human rights record in Geneva, highlighting that the U.S. government does not protect the privacy rights of non-citizens beyond its borders.

In the once-every-four-years review, other countries made 16 recommendations that focus on privacy and surveillance as areas where the U.S. needs to improve its laws and practices. Access and other civil society groups called attention to these recommendations when they took part in the U.S. State Department consultation on the UPR in July.

Last week the French National Assembly adopted a Surveillance Bill that would enable mass surveillance of international phone calls and allow the government tap French undersea cables and monitor all internet traffic.

The bill is an attempt to repackage a clause from the Intelligence Act that was declared unconstitutional over the summer. Now that the surveillance bill has been adopted in the lower chamber, it will be considered by the French Senate, which is set to vote at the end of October. Access strongly opposes this bill, and along with several dozen other NGOs and digital rights groups, we sent an open letter to members of the French Parliament to articulate our concerns.