Policy Observatory
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.
For Mexico City, the International Data Privacy Day also marks the official endorsement by the Mexican Federal District data protection authority (InfoDF) of the International Principles for the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, 13 guiding principles about limiting surveillance. This is timely, as the Mexican Federal Telecommunications Agency (IFT) is currently developing guidelines for cooperation between the government and the Internet Service Providers. This guidelines are one step towards the implementation of the data retention mandate law adopted last year.
On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council will review the human rights record of the government of Spain as part of its Universal Periodic Review. Spain should be named and shamed for its worrying treatment on digital rights issues. In its latest encroachment, authorities have criminalized the use of legitimate encryption and security tools.
The Universal Periodic Review process at the UN Human Rights Council reviews the human rights record of each UN member country every four years.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee called for the Internet to be recognised as a basic human right. Sir Tim noted that in our increasingly unequal world, the Web has the potential to be a great equalizer, but only “if we hardwire the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, affordable access and net neutrality into the rules of the game.”
The 2014-15 edition of the Web Foundation’s annual Web Index examines key Web issues — including privacy, censorship, gender-based violence, equality and, for the first time ever, net neutrality — across 86 countries. The findings from this year’s Index point to a Web that is becoming less free and more unequal.
National sovereignty of the EU Member States and the rule of law would be endangered if Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) was part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Respondents to the public consultation conducted by the European Commission (EC) between March and July 2014 made it clear that they oppose ISDS, but the Commission doesn’t seem to be taking their opinion into account.
On 13 January 2015 the EC presented the results of the public consultation on ISDS. A month later, the Commission’s strategy seems to be a quiet but strong defence of ISDS.
Over 30 digital and civil liberties organisations from around the world have endorsed a joint statement calling on the world’s governments not to expand surveillance measures in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. In addition to European Digital Rights (EDRi), signatories include Article19, digitalcourage, IT-pol, Vrijschrift, La Quadrature du Net, Panoptykon, Initiative für Netzfreiheit, FITUG e.V., Alternative Informatics Association, ORG, EFF, Effi, APTI, and Access.