3 September, 2018 - On 20 July 2018, France's data protection authority the CNIL declared (FR) that the activities of two French start-ups, Teemo et Fidzup, are illegal. They geolocate millions of people for advertising purposes and without their consent. The companies have three months to cease these activities. Unfortunately, in the long run their model could become legal. That is what the European Union is debating in an upcoming ePrivacy regulation.

18 April 2018 - Last Monday, we launched our class action campaign against GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft). Until May 25th (the day complaints will be brought to the CNIL - the French Data Protection Authority), anyone living in France can join us on gafam.laquadrature.net. These first steps will, over the long term, pave the way to steadily counter the world they are trying to force on us.

Paris, 6 November 2017 — On 26 October, the European Parliament as a whole decided to end its debate about the future ePrivacy Regulation. Its position already adopted on 19 October by the leading Civil Liberties committee was thus confirmed. Now, governments of the Member States and representatives of the European Parliament will negotiate in order to find a compromise in form of a final text. Let's review the first step of legislation which has come to an end.

Paris, 14 june 2017 — For some time, political authorities are trying to question the technical and legal protections guaranteed by encryption tools. To oppose these dangerous proposals, the Observatoire des Libertés et du Numérique (Freedoms and Digital Observatory)1 publishes its position on the defence of the right to encryption, a tool indispensable to protect freedoms in the digital age.

• 1. The Observatoire des Libertés et du Numérique includes: Amnesty International France, the Cecil, Creis-Terminal, the Human Rights League, the Syndicat de la magistrature, the Syndicat des Avocats de France and La Quadrature du Net.

Update, 15 February 2017 — The European Parliament adopted CETA by 408 votes against 254 (and 33 abstentions). The “not mixed” parts of the text could thus enter into provisional application in April, until consultations of the regional and/or national Parliaments of the Member States.

Paris, 10 February 2017 — On 15 February, the European Parliament will decide whether to ratify the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA)1. In choosing to back this agreement, MEPs would allow its partial implementation and would open the door for the next steps of the legislative process, which could lead to its complete and definitive implementation. On the other hand, rejecting it would be a death-blow for the agreement, just as it was for ACTA in July 2012. Beyond the unacceptable procedure of its elaboration, CETA is a grave threat to our liberties and fundamental rights. Therefore, La Quadrature du Net calls upon MEPs to oppose it strongly.

• 1. The free-trade agreement between the EU and Canada. The final version of the text is available online.

Paris, 22 December 2016 — The European Court of Justice published a very important decision last 21 December, condemning the principle of generalised data retention by operators, including when mandated by Member States implementing this principle on issues linked to security or fight against crime. Data retention must be the exception and not the rule and can only be used with strong safeguards due to the very serious violation that such retention constitutes for privacy. La Quadrature du Net welcomes this very positive decision and is asking French government to acknowledge European decisions by cancelling all legislation linked to the exploitation or conservation of internet users data.

Update of 10 January 2017: French Senate adopted the extension as well. The text is available here.

Update of 14 December 2016: French National Assembly adopted yesterday the extension of the state emergency until July 2017. On Thursday 15 December, it is Senate's turn to decide.

Paris, 14 December 2016 — The French National Assembly and Senate are about to extend the state of emergency established in France one year ago, on 13 November 2015, for the fith consecutive time. PM Bernard Cazeneuve's administration is requesting a renewal until 15 July 2017 with no guarantee that this state of emergency will end. France is settling into a permanent state of Human Rights suspension and in limitations of civil liberties that become more difficult to block everyday. La Quadrature du Net is calling on MPs to deny this renewal and return to the Rule of Law and the respect of rights and liberties, in this period of crucial elections.

Paris, 8 August 2016 — In its opinion on the draft revision to the ePrivacy directive, published on 25 July 2016, the EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor) took a stand for stronger regulation in favour of privacy. La Quadrature du Net approves the main propositions of this opinion and encourages European legislators to follow them.

Paris, 21 July 2016 — Once again. The State of Emergency in France has been extended until January. In reaction to violence shaking the country and with the presidential election of 2017 only a few months away, political leaders are indulging an ignominious orgy of security-driven policy. Not satisfied with merely prolonging the state of emergency, lawmakers have also amended the 2015 Intelligence Act passed last year to legalize domestic mass surveillance.

11 July 2016 update: On Friday 8 July, Member States have taken an "adequacy decision" that authorises the European Commission to adopt Privacy Shield on 12 July. La Quadrature du Net deeply deplores the rush with which Member States have analysed and adopted this text within only one week, without even waiting for the evaluation by European National Data Protection Authorities, set to meet on July 25 to discuss whether their suggestions and reservations were taken into account in the new text.

Paris, 8 July 2016 — On 8 July 2016, EU Member States, gathering as the so-called "Article 31 Committee", are set to decide whether to adopt or not the "adequacy decision" that will establish a framework for the transfer of personal data between the USA and the EU: the Privacy Shield. This decision, adopted in a rush, does not address the concerns raised during the past weeks by European National Data Protection Authorities (NDPAs), the European Parliament, different European governments, and human rights organisations.

Paris, 14 June 2016 — La Quadrature du Net is participating at the panel "Encryption and Human Rights" organised at the United Nations by the Committee Justice and Peace of the Dominican Order. This conference will talk about the right to encryption and to privacy in a time where in Europe, those rights are at regularly at risk. The video of this conference will be available on the Mediakit of La Quadrature du Net.

Paris, 14 April 2016 — Today, the European Parliament adopted three texts on personal data: the regulation framework for personal data processing by private companies, the Directive on judicial and police processing of personal data, and the PNR (Passenger Name Record) that aims at the creation of national records gathering large amounts of data of persons travelling from or to the European Union, including internal flights. These texts feature numerous loopholes that threaten the right to privacy. Given the inability of the institutions to come up with regulations that actually protect Internet users, it is up to each and every one of us to learn how to protect themselves, their personal data and their privacy on the Internet.

Paris, 7 April 2016 — The Privacy Shield, a framework for personal data transfers towards US-based companies, is currently under negotiation. This new agreement follows the invalidation of the Safe Harbor by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), who ruled that it did not uphold a substantially equivalent protection for personal data of people protected under European law, and suggested new measures to address it. Since the draft Privacy Shield does not take these measures into account, the resulting agreement is bound to reduce the fundamental rights of Europeans.

Joint communiqué from the Observatoire des Libertés et du Numérique (Freedoms and Digital Observatory)1

• 1. The Observatoire des Libertés et du Numérique includes: Amnesty International France, the Cecil, Creis-Terminal, the Human Rights League, the Syndicat de la magistrature, the Syndicat des Avocats de France and La Quadrature du Net.

Paris, 1 April 2016 — While tragic attacks struck the heart of the European Union, the directive on combating terrorism, currently being discussed by the European Parliament, could speed up the implementation of security policies across the whole Europe. La Quadrature du Net is concerned about a Europeanisation of the French Anti-Terrorism drifts.

Paris, 15 February 2016 — The French Council of State has released an eagerly awaited decision (fr) on the validity of administrative access to connection data. La Quadrature du Net, French Data Network and the FDN Federation have been calling into question the Military Programmation Law (LPM) and its application decree that enables the administration to access connection data without requiring any judicial control. By refusing to repeal the decree and to transmit the question to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling, the Council of State avoids any judicial debate and isolates French vis-à-vis EU case law.