Policy Observatory

Tor (The Onion Router) is an anonymity network that directs Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network that consists of relays, known as nodes, concealing the location and usage details of users, to protect their privacy. It is used for example by journalists and political activists to guarantee the confidentiality of their communications, but can also be used by criminals to hide their tracks from law enforcement.

A government's statement announced on Wednesday that Merkel’s cabinet supports a new bill that would remove the liability for WiFi providers. Under the bill, providers won’t be held liable as long as they secure the network properly and get users to agree not to act illegally.

Ten years ago this week, five public companies launched a novel, pioneering, and seldom heralded project that was one of the first patent defense alliances.

The consortium, known as the Open Invention Network, is dedicated to protecting a mode of collaborative invention. Specifically, it tries to safeguard the Linux open-source software ecosystem—software that’s written collaboratively and distributed for free—from patent licensing demands and lawsuits from any aggressor.

Dutch telecoms firm KPN announced Wednesday it had launched in two cities a new wireless technology known as LoRa to wirelessly connect objects, ahead of a country-wide rollout. The network is working in Rotterdam and The Hague from today and will come into effect across the rest of the country in stages in 2016, KPN said in a statement.