Tag: Regulation

Today we celebrated the 33rd International Data Privacy Day by reminding members of the Council of the E.U. representatives of their obligation to protect the rights of European citizens. We sent a letter, signed by several European and International NGOs, outlining the importance of the rights to privacy and data protection and urging them to reach a conclusion on the General Data Protection Regulation without any further delay.

This week Verizon became the first multinational telco to release a Transparency Report on law enforcement requests.

Access sees the PCLOB’s recommendations as a major step toward ending the practice of indiscriminate bulk collection of user data. While the report is limited in its scope, it makes bold statements casting doubt on both the legality and the utility of the NSA’s mass surveillance programs.

On February 9th, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) presented its long-awaited draft report on the impact of mass surveillance programmes on the rights of European citizens.

Last Thursday, Europe’s top privacy watchdogs stepped down at the conclusion of their terms. This week, the European Commission has yet to name a successor for its most important privacy posts. At a time when the European Union is actively considering landmark privacy legislation and simultaneously responding to the Snowden mass surveillance revelations, this is at best a shocking oversight and at worst a deliberate attempt to undermine Europeans’ privacy rights.

Today, Access released it analysis and review of the President Obama’s Advisory Committee’s Recommendations for N.S.A. reform. While some of the suggested reforms could lead to welcomed increase of privacy protections, overall the recommendations do not go far enough.

Today, Vodafone announced it will ask governments in 25 countries for the right to disclose the number of demands it receives for wiretapping and customer data.

Yesterday, a U.S. Appeals Court invalidated the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality rules. In its ruling, the court stated that the FCC lacked the authority to prevent internet service providers from discriminating among certain types of traffic — effectively allowing providers to make pay-to-play a reality online. This ruling is a significant blow to net neutrality, in the United States and elsewhere. The Court’s ruling creates a dangerous global precedent places the unique character of the internet — its boldness, creativity, and diversity — at risk. And yet, by ruling selectively on the merits of the case, the Court has left the door open for possible reforms, at least in the United States.

One of the many recommendations in the President’s Review Group report on the NSA surveillance programs released last month was for the review of MLATs, or Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties. This was the second time that MLATs made the news in December: at the beginning of the month, eight major internet companies issued a series of principles for reforming government surveillance that including improving the MLAT system. Clearly MLATs are an issue, but what does this four-letter word mean, and why are they so desperately in need of reform?

Access welcomes today’s report by the Global Network Initiative on its assessments of the three founding GNI members: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!. The Public Report on the Independent Assessment Process addresses how the companies in question respond to government requests “implicating freedom of expression or privacy rights” and describes the assessment of these processes against the GNI Principles. According to the report, all three companies were found to be in compliance with the Principles, as per a case review by independent assessors.