Privacy - Personal Data
The protection of privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a democratic society, privacy is an enabler for other fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression and to form and join associations. However, some powerful entities now have an interest in weakening the protection of this fundamental right to increase the surveillance of citizens and draw a profit by collecting, processing, storing and trading it. These dangerous practices are already widespread on the Internet.
The legal framework that protects privacy needs to be strengthend and adapted to the digital era. There are currently three major legislative developments.
- The French law Loi de programmation militaire (LPM) which allows highly intrusive surveillance of citizens by the authorities without proper judicial oversight.
- The European Parliament's Data Protection Regulation, adopted in first reading in March 2014, will now be considered on 5/6 June by the Council of the European Union.
- The decision by the European Court of Justice of the European Union in April 2014 declaring the 2006 Data Retention Directive invalid, will force the European Institutions to draft new regulations and national governments to reconsider their laws that had implemented the Directive.
Quad'news
- Teemo, Fidzup: French privacy watchdog bans rogue geolocation, EU considers legalising it04/09/18
- It's Time to Tackle GAFAM and Their World18/04/18
- "Fake news" : bringing the European debate to the source of the problem06/03/18
- End of the privacy debate in the European Parliament: overview21/12/17
- European Parliament failed to protect our Privacy19/10/17
- Regressive group finally out of debate on our ePrivacy!17/10/17
- ePrivacy: European Parliament must stop Michal Boni11/10/17
Press review
- [Politico] French privacy watchdog says facial recognition trial in high schools is illegal06/11/19
- [TheStar] France set to roll out nationwide facial recognition ID program04/11/19
- [SecurityWeek] Group Seeks Investigation of Deep Packet Inspection Use by ISPs01/06/19
- [BoingBoing] European telcos want the right to perform “deep packet inspection” on our data30/05/19
- [TheAtlantic] Why Surveillance Is the Climate Change of the Internet30/05/19
- [NBCNews] Millions of people uploaded photos to the Ever app. Then the company used them to develop facial recognition tools12/05/19
- [ZDNet] EU votes to create gigantic biometrics database12/05/19
Timeline
To come
- 19 May 2016 - Article 31 group to meet in order to finalise its position
- Mid-June 2016 - Article 31 group to release its non-binding opinion on the Privacy Shield's draft
- 5 July 2016 - End of ePrivacy drective consultation
- 25 May 2018 - The new data protection Regulation will come into effect
Past
- 24 April 2016 - The new data protection Regulation came into force, it shall apply from 25 May 2018/li>
- 14 April 2016 - Final vote the data protection Regulation and Directive in Parliament (LQDN's reaction)
- 13 April 2016 - The WP29 announced its position regarding personal data transfers to the U.S. at an extraordinary plenary meeting on the Privacy Shield
- 11 April 2016 - The E. Commission launched a public consultation on the e-Privacy Directive's reform
- 6 April 2016 - E. Parliament organised a hearing of e-privacy experts, in preparation of the e-privacy Directive's reform
- 17 March 2016 - LIBE Committee's hearing of experts on the Privacy Shield
- 29 February 2016 - The EU Commission published the draft of the Privacy Shield
- 17 December 2015 - Vote by the LIBE Committee of the GDPR
- 15 December 2015 - Last trialogue for the GDPR
- 14 July 2015 - Second trialogue on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- 24 June 2015 - First trialogue (ie. secret negociations behind closed doors)
- 6 June 2014 - Legislative deliberation of the Council of the European Union on the Chapter V of the Regulation on Data Protection
- 8 April 2014 - Court of Justice of the European Union publishes a ruling that the Data Retention Directive is invalid.
- 12 March 2014 - The European Parliament calls for the suspension of “Safe Harbor”
- 12 March 2014 - Vote on the General Data Protection Regulation
- 11 February 2014 - The Day We Fight Back against surveillance and in support of privacy
- 19 December 2013 - Final Adoption of Generalised Surveillance in France
- 21 October 2013 - The “Civil Liberties” (LIBE) committee votes on its report (LQDN's reaction)
- 19 March 2013 - The “Legal Affairs” (JURI) committee votes on its opinion (LQDN's reaction)
- 21 February 2013 - The “Employment” (EMPL) committee votes on its opinion (LQDN's reaction)
- 20 February 2013 - The “Industry” (ITRE) committee votes on its opinion (LQDN's reaction)
- 23 January 2013 - The “Consumer Protection” (IMCO) committee votes on its opinion (LQDN's reaction)
- 25 January 2012 - European Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding presented a draft for a new EU data protection regulation
Reclaim Our Privacy
Reference documents
Campaign websites
- Snowden Doc Search: Things the NSA doesn't want you to know
- Email Self-Defense
- Naked Citizens
- LobbyPlag: which MEPs are pushing for more or less data privacy?
- Necessary and proportionate: International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance
- Prism Break: stop governments from spying on you by encrypting your communications and ending your reliance on proprietary services
- EDRI's campaign portal Protect your data!
- List of Lobbies against strong data protection
Analysis
- EDRI's analysis of data protection regulation
- EDRI's in-depth website ProtectMyData
- The Data Protection Archive: all documents and material produced by EDRi on the Data Protection Regulation and Directive
- Key messages from Bits of Freedom
- EDRI's position paper
- EFF's Who Has Your Back? report
- Key issues of the proposed regulation by EDRI
- EDRI's Booklet "An introduction to Data Protection"
- Position paper signed by more than 90 leading senior academics from across Europe
- Data Protection: All You Need to Know about the EU Privacy Debate
European Institutions documents
- Judgement by Court of Justice of the European Union on the 2006 Data Retention Directive.
- Procedure file: Personal data protection: processing and free movement of data (General Data Protection Regulation)
- Procedure file: Personal data protection: processing of data for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or execution of criminal penalties, and free movement of data
- The “Data Protection” Directive (95/46/EC)
Committees and Rapporteurs
- The “Civil Liberties” (LIBE) Committee of the European Parliament is the main committee working on the Data Protection Regulation. The rapporteur is Jan Philipp Albrecht (Germany - Greens/EFA) - report
- These committees will first vote on their opinions after holding “exchange of views” on draft reports in the coming weeks:
- “Employment” (EMPL) (Nadja Hirsch - Germany - ALDE),
- “Consumer Protection” (IMCO) (Lara Comi - Italy - EPP),
- “Industry” (ITRE) (Seán Kelly - Ireland - EPP),
- “Legal Affairs” (JURI) (Marielle Gallo - France - EPP)
For the shadow rapporteurs and a more detailled timeline, see protectmydata.eu
