Category: Human rights

View of the sun setting above the clouds, lighting up the sky with an orange glow, with an aeroplane wing tip on the left

Why is Wikimedia (still) blocking contributions via VPNs?

Wikimedia has blocked anyone using Virtual Private Networks, including Apple’s Private Relay service, from editing pages — even when logged in 😬 It’s easier to block wiki-vandals if they can’t easily hop from one IP address to another. But it means anyone using a VPN to protect their privacy — including Tor and Apple’s Private Relay — is collateral damage.

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The inadequacy of the US Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards For US Signals Intelligence Activities

The new US Executive Order does not change the fact the US authorities insist on carrying out indiscriminate, untargeted mass surveillance, also of EU persons and EU governmental and non-governmental entities, by means of bulk collection of data, without independent substantive judicial oversight or effective redress.

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Panel discussion at CPDP

Technology, Power and the Pandemic

Thanks to Tilburg’s Global Data Justice project for the invitation to speak on their CPDP panel this week to launch their excellent new report, Digital disruption or crisis capitalism? I used the case of England’s contact-tracing app to further illuminate some elements of the report, based on a book chapter of mine which should be published this autumn.

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Airline ticket

Opinion on the Passenger Name Record CJEU case

In Case-817/19, Belgium’s Constitutional Court has asked the EU Court of Justice whether the PNR Directive (2016/681) is compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. On the basis of this detailed legal opinion, the CJEU should declare the Directive (like the Data Retention Directive) to be fundamentally in breach of the Charter.

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