Policy Observatory

Romania: The aftermath of the second CCR data retention ruling

Wed 8 Oct 2014, 19:20

As previously reported in the EDRi-gram, the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled in its decision no. 440 on 8 July 2014 that the second Romanian data retention law (no. 82/2012) was not constitutional. The full reasoning for this was published in the Official Journal on 4 September 2014 in Romanian. EDRi-member ApTI is working on the translation of the text, and an English version will follow soon.

Tags: ApTI, unconstitutional, Constitutional Court, data retention, Romania, secret services, decision, privacy

Romania: Mandatory prepaid SIM registration ruled unconstitutional

Wed 24 Sep 2014, 19:40

The Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled on 16 September 2014 that a law that required the mandatory registration of all prepaid SIM cards and free WiFi users, is unconstitutional, as a whole. The Court reviewed the law as a result of the Romanian Ombudsman’s objection concerning its possible unconstitutionality. Several human rights NGOs asked the Ombudsman in July 2014 to notify the CCR regarding the law which had been recently adopted, and to ask the Court to rule on the law’s constitutionality before its promulgation by the President.

Tags: Constitutional Court, law, WiFi user registration, decision, unconstitutional, Romania, prepaid sim card registration

Guidelines on the implementation of Google vs Spain decision

Wed 26 Nov 2014, 16:28

The judgment of the Court of Justice of European Union (CJEU) of 13 May 2014 Google Spain SL and Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja González (C-131/12) sets a milestone for EU data protection in respect of search engines and, more generally, in the online world.
It grants the possibility to data subjects to request to search engines, under certain conditions, the delisting of links appearing in the search results based on a person’s name.

On Wednesday 26 November, the European data protection authorities assembled in the Article 29 Working Party (WP29) have adopted guidelines on the implementation of the CJEU’s judgment. These guidelines contain the common interpretation of the ruling as well as the common criteria to be used by the data
protection authorities when addressing complaints.

Tags: implementation, guidelines, decision, personal data, search engine, privacy, CJUE, Google, right to be forgotten, European Commission, Art. 29 WP, Google vs Spain

Republican bill would overturn FCC broadband decision

Fri 27 Feb 2015, 01:20

It didn’t take long for congressional Republicans to attack the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to strike down two state laws that prevent municipal broadband networks from expanding.

Seven Republican lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday, just hours after the FCC vote, that would prohibit the agency from preempting state laws that limit municipal broadband networks. The main sponsors of the bill are Representative Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, and Senator Thom Tillis, of North Carolina.

Tags: broadband, decision, FCC, vote, Internet, net neutrality

FCC vote in favor of broadband reclassification

Thu 26 Feb 2015, 23:40

Today the FCC voted three to two to reclassify broadband Internet access as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, and forbear from the parts of the Act that aren’t necessary for net neutrality rules. This reclassification gives the FCC the authority to enact (and enforce) narrow, clear rules which will help keep the Internet the open platform it is today.

As expected, the FCC’s new rules forbid ISPs from charging Internet users for special treatment on their networks. It will also reach interconnection between ISPs and transit providers or edge services, allowing the FCC to ensure that ISPs don’t abuse their gatekeeper authority to favor some services over others.

Tags: net neutrality, ISP, Communications Act, decision, vote, FCC, Internet access, broadband reclassification

CJEU says that linking to unauthorised content is NOT a communication to the public unless one seeks financial gain and has knowledge of illegality

Thu 8 Sep 2016, 12:40

This morning the Court of Justice of the European Union has issued its judgment in GS Media. This was a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Dutch Supreme Court. It had been made in the context of proceedings between Sanoma (the publisher of Playboy magazine) and GS Media, concerning the publication by the latter on a website that it operates (GeenStijl.nl) of hyperlinks to other websites hosting unpublished photographs of Dutch starlet Britt Dekker. These photographs were due for publication in a forthcoming issue of Playboy.

Tags: communication to the public, preliminary ruling, hyperlinks, linking, copyright, decision, CJEU, unauthorised content