Whilst several EU governments are increasingly alert to why encryption is so important, the Council is split between those that are committed to upholding privacy and digital security in Europe, and those that aren’t. The latest draft Council text does not go anywhere near far enough to make scanning

Google changed its privacy policy: "we may collect information that’s publicly available online or from other public sources to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features, like Translate, Bard and Cloud AI capabilities". https://mastodon.social/@LukaszOlejnik/110642930748110311

Ireland: Questionable GDPR procedures now "confidential" Yesterday, the Irish DPC managed a narrow win in Parliament and got a new law passed that shall make criticism of DPC procedures impossible. https://noyb.eu/en/ireland-questionable-gdpr-procedures-now-confidential

Privacy rights group NOYB submitted a complaint to Belgium's data protection authority, the ADP, against U.S.-based companies over alleged privacy violations concerning cellphone data use. The complaint alleges telecommunications provider BISC and fraud prevention firm TeleSign improperly collected and shared data between them on Europeans' cellphone activity.Full

TeleSign secretly profiles half of the world’s mobile phone users TeleSign generates a “reputation score” and sells it to various clients. TeleSign secretly received the mobile phone data from BICS, a Belgian company that provides interconnection services. https://noyb.eu/en/telesign-profiles-half-worlds-phone-users

The hunt for alleged fraudsters by student finance provider Duo affects almost only students with a migration background. Duo is unaware of any wrongdoing and plans to quadruple the number of checks in September. By Anouk Kootstra, Bas Belleman and Belia Heilbron for De Groene Amsterdammer on June 21, 2023

Twenty-four nongovernment organizations wrote the European Commission urging consideration of maintaining appropriate consumer redress as the commission works on legislation to harmonize EU General Data Protection Regulation enforcement, Euractiv reports. The European Commission is expected to publish a proposal in July that would help expedite administrative procedures for GDPR enforcement.

Belgium's Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport and the Netherlands' vehicle authority allege Transport for London's debt collection agency unlawfully obtained citizens' information to issue fines, the Guardian reports. The Dutch authority said European Parking Collection requested individuals' names and addresses through an Italian government agency that was not authorized

Read EDPS Wojciech Wiewiórowski's blogpost to mark World Refugee Day as we pay respect to the courage of refugees that have to flee their countries to escape war, persecutions and other disasters.Welcome back to our podcast, the Newsletter Digest. In episode 5, learn more about XAI, processing data to

What's the news? The government was using the fraud detection tool SyRI until 2020, the exact operation of which no one knew. It was unclear how it selected 'suspicious' addresses. Now it turns out that it leaned on a comprehensive range of 'risk indicators' that meant that even an old

Proposed data-sharing deals between Europol and five states in Central and South America needs explicit safeguards if they are to uphold fundamental rights, the European Data Protection Supervisor said at the beginning of May. Police forces in those states have brutal records of violence and torture. https://edri.org/our-work/

The final EU Parliament position upholds all of the fundamental rights demands which were added at committee level. Despite efforts to overturn it, the final position also maintains the committees' strong stance against biometric mass surveillance practices. But it is disappointing that the plenary missed the opportunity to increase protections

Despite the clear warnings, Belgium has taken a position calling on the EU to adopt the CSA regulation as quickly as possible, dismissing the technical problems, and without addressing the serious legal concerns that have been raised. https://edri.org/our-work/the-belgian-government-is-failing-to-consider-human-rights-in-csa-regulation/

The Wall Street Journal reports the European Commission plans to file an antitrust complaint aimed at breaking up Google's advertising technology business. The complaint will call for Google to sell off some of its adtech tools, some of which are driven by data collection and profiling that help generate targeted

Google's generative artificial intelligence tool Bard will not debut in the EU until the company satisfies privacy concerns raised by Ireland's Data Protection Commission, Politico reports. Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said the regulator "had not had any detailed briefing nor sight of a data protection impact assessment" from Google ahead

A spreadsheet on ad platform Xandr’s website revealed a massive collection of “audience segments” used to target consumers based on highly specific, sometimes intimate information and inferences https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

'Rotterdam is at the forefront of digital surveillance,' says Marc Schuilenburg in the sun-drenched garden of his home in De Esch, sipping a mug of filter coffee. 'The idea of a smart city, in which algorithms and data-driven surveillance play an important role, resonates here - just look at

Last year, it was revealed that the USA planned to launch Enhanced Border Security Partnerships (EBSPs) with other states around the world, seemingly targeting the EU, UK and Israel first. These would involve “continuous and systematic” transfers of biometric data to the USA for the purposes of immigration and asylum

The Netherlands' data protection authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, claimed it was made aware of a potential data breach of Tesla, Reuters reports. A German publication claimed to have received 100 gigabytes of confidential data from a whistleblower, indicating lax data practices on the part of Tesla. AP officials declined to state

The Guardian reports the websites of 20 U.K. National Health Service trusts are collecting browser information and sharing details about patients' medical conditions, appointments and treatments with Facebook through a Meta Pixel tool. The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office is investigating. A report published by the Open Rights Group

Eight years after a controversy over Black people being mislabeled as gorillas by image analysis software — and despite big advances in computer vision — tech giants still fear repeating the mistake. By Kashmir Hill and Nico Grant for The New York Times on May 22, 2023 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/

The Ethiopian-born computer scientist lost her job after pointing out the inequalities built into AI. But after decades working with technology companies, she knows all too much about discrimination. By John Harris for The Guardian on May 22, 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/may/22/there-was-all-sorts-of-toxic-behaviour-timnit-gebru-on-her-sacking-by-google-ais-dangers-and-big-techs-biases

Lab will advance assessments of AI systems in the public interest. From Data & Society on May 10, 2023 https://datasociety.net/announcements/2023/05/10/data-society-announces-the-launch-of-its-algorithmic-impact-methods-lab/

In its opinion on the Bezirkshauptmannschaft Landeck case, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice is failing to suggest adequate safeguards for police access to our smartphones. https://edri.org/our-work/eu-court-of-justice-advocate-general-accepts-access-to-phones-for-any-crime/

How a Swiss tech expert runs a global phone surveillance systemIn the decade since Edward Snowden’s leaks exposed the workings of the US and UK national surveillance apparatus, the market for spying services has fragmented and expanded into a start-up economy of location trackers, password crackers and data extractors.