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What a computer can actually do…

Submitted by Kaitlin McDermott on 26 August 2019 - 1:21pm

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Our future with technology is a polarizing topic. While some urge that advancements pose grave threats to personal privacy and other fundamental rights, others believe whole-heartedly in the promise of new technologies to eradicate long-standing inequalities at a pace that humans have been unable – or unwilling – to go. This second vision, in which computers and algorithms solve social problems and have the power to fix the world, subscribes to a view of technological utopianism — the idea that, through reliance on new technologies, the world will become truly better for everyone.

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Privacy and Data Protection

Complaint filed against collection of airline passenger data

Submitted by nini on 20 August 2019 - 4:18pm

CC-BY-SA 4.0 Արման Բարսեղյան, edited

Together with our German partners from Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte, we are currently fighting to stop the collection of airline passenger data in Europe. To this end we just filed seven complaints in Austria with the Data Protection Authority regarding the practice of processing passenger data by a designated unit in the Interior Ministry. Our aim is the legal evaluation of the underlying PNR law, which is based on the EU PNR Directive, in order to determine whether it is in line with the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection.

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PNR

E.U. vs. U.S.A.: What Can Different Attitudes Towards Platform Regulation Teach Us?

Submitted by Kaitlin McDermott on 8 August 2019 - 10:04am

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The responsibility of communications platforms like Google, Twitter, and Facebook for their users’ online activities is a key factor affecting innovation and free speech in the 21st century. Still, the degree of liability for intermediaries – and the extent of online speech regulation – varies greatly, lacking a unified approach to regulation. Heightening the monitoring responsibilities of intermediaries is, in some ways, positive because intermediaries can work to support a healthy speech environment online.

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Platform regulation

An Explainer on the Base Rate Fallacy and PNR

Submitted by Kaitlin McDermott on 22 July 2019 - 1:48pm

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The base rate fallacy is the tendency to ignore base rates in the presence of specific, individuating information. Rather than integrating general information and statistics with information about an individual case, the mind tends to ignore the former and focus on the latter. This phenomenon is widespread – and it afflicts even trained statisticians, notes American-Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. He illustrates this common reasoning flaw early in the book with the following example. Kahneman writes:

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PNR

Upload filters approved: EU parliament votes for internet censorship

Submitted by iwona on 18 April 2019 - 9:09am

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Despite weeks of intense protests from civil society, MEPs have voted in favour of upload filters and Article 13. The fundamental rights NGO epicenter.works announces that it will take this law to the highest court and will continue to use all means to stop this excessive censorship infrastructure. 

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Copyright

Record number of calls to the EU Parliament against upload filters

Submitted by Thomas Lohninger on 14 March 2019 - 11:43am

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With just two weeks to go until the final vote on upload filters in the European Parliament, one hundred MEPs have pledged to vote against Article 13 of the proposed Copyright Directive. Many citizens feel like their legitimate fears about the future of the internet are not taken seriously, as lawmakers insult them as being "bots" or simply "a mob". Public protests demanding the removal of Article 13 have been announced in 23 European cities.

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Copyright

Report: Net Neutrality Compliance and Enforcement in the EU Is Spotty

Submitted by Thomas Lohninger on 29 January 2019 - 2:12pm

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It has been two-and-a-half years since net neutrality laws were enacted in the European Union — are they working?

Comprehensive new research by the Vienna-based nonprofit epicenter.works answers this question, examining if telecom companies are breaking net neutrality rules, how regulators are reacting, and how this affects internet users across the continent. The report is titled The Net Neutrality Situation in the EU: Evaluation of the First Two Years of Enforcement.

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Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality vs. 5G: What to expect from the upcoming reform in the EU?

Submitted by Thomas Lohninger on 16 November 2018 - 1:54pm

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The principle of net neutrality has been protected in the European Union since 2016. Half a billion people benefit from the protection against network discrimination by telecom companies. Net neutrality is a founding principle of the internet and one of the most essential digital rights. It ensures the protection of the right to freedom of speech, the right to assembly, the right to conduct business, and the freedom to innovate on the internet. These protections came about in no small part due to the work of civil society.

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Net Neutrality