Estelle Massé

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.

Tomorrow morning, Legal Services in the EU will release this long-awaited study. Access has obtained a copy of the document, which concludes that the EU’s powers to legislate on data retention matters are now limited.

Tomorrow morning, the European Parliament legal services will release its long-awaited study on the Court of Justice of the EU’s ruling on the Data Retention Directive. Access obtained a copy of the document, which concludes that the EU’s powers to legislate on data retention matters are now limited.

New leaked document on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) exposes threats to privacy, data protection, and net neutrality.

Yesterday, the European Parliament voted by a large majority to refer the EU-Canada passenger name record agreement (PNR) to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) to assess its compliance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Ever since CJEU’s landmark ruling invalidating the Data Retention Directive last April, a number of ongoing and proposed agreements that include data retention schemes have been put under the microscope. Yesterday’s vote is the first of many steps to ending indiscriminate and unlawful surveillance programmes in the EU.

For the past four months, the European Commission has been conducting a public consultation on corporate social responsibility (CSR) to which Access responded. Unfortunately, we found little to praise in the Commission’s efforts on CSR thus far, and have many qualms with the limited consultation process.

On Friday, July 25th, the German Government raised concerns over the current chapter on the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) included in the trade agreement between the EU and Canada – known as CETA – currently being discussed on both sides of the Atlantic. This announcement is indicative of the growing resistance to ISDS in trade agreements taking place in the European Union at the moment.

To help bridge the substantial differences in how user privacy is protected on the two sides of the Atlantic, the Safe Harbor was established to enable U.S. companies to lawfully transfer data without running afoul of EU data protection law. To make use of the Safe Harbor, companies voluntarily adhere to a set of principles, with oversight from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), though to date enforcement of corporate policies and practices has been limited.

This week the U.K. Parliament adopted the “Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act,” or DRIP, a bill that would dramatically expand the government’s surveillance powers. In the runup to the vote, the GCHQ, civil service, and coalition and opposition leaders showed a flagrant disregard for parliamentary procedure and failed to allow an informed and public debate. The result is a terrible bill that would treat all citizens, in the U.K. and abroad, as surveillance targets.

On May 13th, the European Court of Justice ruled on the case between the Spanish citizen, Mario Costeja González and Google Spain, regarding the Spanish Data Protection Authority requests for the search engine to withdraw personal data relating to Mr Costeja González from its index and to prevent access to the data in the future.