NEWS
http://www.statewatch.org/news/
Top stories and analyses from Statewatch
1. EU: Fingerprinting by force: secret discussions on "systematic identification" of migrants and asylum seekers2. EU: Statewatch Analysis: Proposed Data Protection Regulation: What has the Council agreed so far?3. Is it time to go back to the typewriter, carbon paper and Tippex? "Remote access" to any computer anywhere
NEWS
4. EU: Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, Brussels, 12-13 March 2014
5. UK: Police "spying" whistleblower admits to MPs that he infiltrated six trade unions
6. UK: SURVEILLANCE: The Orwellian Re-Branding of "Mass surveillance" as merely "Bulk Collection
7. UK: GCHQ/MI5/MI6: New law for security agencies proposed but will it stop the surveillance state?
8. EU: Travel surveillance: EU-PNR (Passenger Name Record): Letter from Commissioner to European Parliament
9. UK: Undercover policing: Judge to lead public inquiry
10. EU: When super-regulators fight: the "one-stop shop" in proposed Data Protection Regulation
11. UK: Home Office withdraws plan to expand Campsfield House detention centre
12. NETHERLANDS: Dutch court scraps telecommunications data retention law
13. SPAIN: Woman suing police over relationship with undercover spy finds tracking device in her car
14. UK: Protests and Hunger Strikes are breaking out at Detention Centres in UK
15. UK: BLACKLISTING: New book launched at the House of Commons
16. UK: Uninvestigated Northern Ireland killings "tarnish UK's reputation
17. UK: Foreign Secretary hits out at "apologists" for terror
18. EU: The Commission's 2015 Justice "Scoreboard" - glossing over the cracks?
19. UK: Extradition procedures may breach human rights
20 Statewatch Analysis: Basic data protection principles in the proposed Data Protection Regulation: back to the future?
21. EU: New report on alternatives to immigration detention
22. EU: European and national parliamentarians divided on the EU "Smart Borders Package"?
23. NORTHERN IRELAND: The apparatus of impunity? Human rights violations and the Northern Ireland conflict
24. EU: Commission President calls for a European army
25. BULGARIA: Tri-nation patrols at railway stations
26. EU: Council LIMITE documents: Terrorism post-Riga, DNA ONE, EU Classified Information, cybersecurity and NIS
27.UK: CARDIFF THREE: Lynette Whire: Review into collapse of corruption trial
28. UK: An Assessment of the Report of the Inquiry into the use of immigration detention in UK
29. EU: Council of the European Union: Use of the VIS with a view to handling asylum cases
30. European Commission & High Representative of the EU: Towards a new European Neighbourhood Policy
31. EU: Council of the European Union: Global Conference on Cyberspace 2015, the Hague, Netherlands
32. EU in a pickle over PNR
33. UK: House of Commons report: Current and future uses of biometric data and technologies
34. EU: Measures by Europol relating to foreign fighters Bundestag printed paper
35. EU-UK: European Commission: Report on equality between women and men 2014
36. EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: LIMITE documents: Council: Chapter II: PRINCIPLES and the One Stop Shop
EU-UK-GCHQ-USA-NSA SURVEILLANCE
http://www.statewatch.org/eu-usa-data-surveillance.htm
1. New Zealand used NSA system to target officials, anti-corruption campaigner
2. USA: NSA sued by Wikimedia, rights groups over mass surveillance
3. UK parliament says banning Tor is unacceptable and impossible
4. Snowden Archive (Canadian Journalists for Free Expression)
And see: NEWS DIGEST (dozens of news links from across the EU, updated daily)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/Newsinbrief.htm
USING THE STATEWATCH WEBSITE
Top stories and analyses from Statewatch
1. EU: Fingerprinting by force: secret discussions on "systematic identification" of migrants and asylum seekers
The European Commission and Member States are discussing, in secret, a set of "best practices for Member States to follow in order to ensure that their obligations under the Eurodac Regulation are fulfilled". The guidelines ultimately address "fingerprinting [with] the use of a proportionate degree of coercion" including on "vulnerable persons, such as minors or pregnant women". The aim is to "uphold the integrity of the Dublin Regulation" - the legal basis for Europe's asylum system, which many consider to be fundamentally flawed. And: Press release (pdf)
2. EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: New Statewatch Analysis: Second version: The Proposed Data Protection Regulation: What has the Council agreed so far? (pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex, Twitter: @StevePeers: 150 pages with 293 Member State postions:
"the EU Council (which consists of Member States’ justice ministers) has been adopting its position on the proposed Regulation in several pieces. It has not yet adopted even part of its position on the proposed Regulation
For the benefit of those interested in the details of these developments, the following analysis presents a consolidated text of the five pieces of the proposed Regulation which the Council has agreed to date, including the two parts just agreed in March 2015. This also includes the parts of the preamble which have already been agreed. I have left intact the footnotes appearing in the agreed texts, which set out Member States’ comments".
3. Statewatch: Viewpoint: Is it time to go back to the typewriter, carbon paper and Tippex? (pdf) by Tony Bunyan
"The “white-washing” report on GCHQ, MI5 & MI6 by the Intelligence and Security Committee published on 12 March 2015 was preceded by a draft Code of Practice "Equipment Interference” to allow the UK intelligence and security agencies to “legally” access computers to gather and break encryption codes and allow “remote access” to “interfere” with any targeted computer anywhere in the world.
The deadline for comments on the Code is 20 March 2015 after which it will be “laid” before parliament and usually be adopted without debate.
NEWS
4. EU: Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, Brussels, 12-13 March 2014: Final Press release for 12-13 March 2014 (pdf)
Main "B" points Agenda (pdf), "A" Points Agenda: legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) and "A" Points: non-legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) and Background note (pdf)
5. UK: Police 'spying' whistleblower admits to MPs that he infiltrated six trade unions (Mirror, link): "The revelation by former Special Demonstration Squad officer Peter Francis has piled further pressure on Home Secretary Theresa May to widen inquiry into undercover policing" and: Ex-spy copper admits union infiltrations (Morning Star, link):
"In a statement read out by Labour MP John McDonnell at the launch of the new book Blacklisted, Mr Francis said he wished to “unreservedly apologise to all the union members I personally spied upon and reported back on whilst deployed undercover in the SDS.”
He said that members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Communication Workers Union (CWU), Unison and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as well as the National Union of Students (NUS) had been targeted."
See also: Home Secretary announces statutory inquiry into undercover policing (Home Office, link) AND: Tayor Review: Investigation into links between Special Demonstration Squad and Home Office (pdf)
6. UK: SURVEILLANCE: The Orwellian Re-Branding of “Mass Surveillance” as Merely “Bulk Collection” (The Intercept, link) by Glen Greenwald: "the governments and media of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance are now attempting to re-brand “mass surveillance” as “bulk collection” in order to make it less menacing (and less illegal)." and UK Parliament Committee, Calling For Reform, Shows Its “Evidence” to Justify Mass Surveillance (The Intercept, link).
See also: The Guardian view on surveillance: parliament’s slumbering scrutineer: Editorial: The ISC is at last waking up to the facts revealed by Edward Snowden. But the committee still doesn’t get it on privacy (Guardian, link): "atrocities thus make the case for better-organised and perhaps better-resourced trailing of particular targets, but certainly not the collating of more data on everyone else. The great difficulty of the agencies appears to be holding on to all the needles they pull out of haystacks, yet the lazy instinct is to demand ever more hay."
7. UK: GCHQ/MI5/MI6: Parliamentary report recommends new law for security agencies - but will that stop the surveillance state?
The Intelligence and Security Committee's long-awaited report on the surveillance powers of the security agencies has recommended a new law "governing the intelligence and security Agencies." Privacy International has responded to the report by pointing out: "no amount of technical and legal jargon can obscure the fact that this is a parliamentary committee, in a democratic country, telling its citizens that they are living in a surveillance state and that all is well."
See: Report: Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament: Privacy and Security: A modern and transparent legal framework (pdf) and and see: ISC report acknowleges failings but paves way for snooper's charter (Guardian, link)
Also: Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner: 2014 (pdf)
8. EU: Travel surveillance and passenger profiling: Commission letter to European Parliament tries to justify PNR Directive
Two European Commissioners have written to the European Parliament to try to justify, on the basis of the Court of Justice's ruling on data retention, the proposed Passenger Name Record (PNR) Directive that would require the mandatory surveillance by law enforcement agencies of all air travel within the EU.
See: Letter from Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos (pdf) and also: EU PNR proposal is 'neither proportionate nor appropriate' (The Parliament, link)
9. UK: Undercover policing: Judge to lead public inquiry (Channel 4 News, link): "Home Secretary Theresa May establishes a judge-led inquiry into past and present undercover policing in England and Wales, with powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. The inquiry will consider the deployment of undercover police officers by the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) and by other forces in England and Wales."
See also: Home Secretary announces statutory inquiry into undercover policing (Home Office, link) AND: Tayor Review: Investigation into links between Special Demonstration Squad and Home Office (pdf): "the Home Office knew that: Between 1969 and 1989, it was providing a separate and secret budget to meet the costs of accommodation as well as transport costs for covert officers; Operations and officers deployed by SDS were extremely covert; Groups and organisations were deliberately targeted, monitored and infilitrated to gather intelligence. Over the years, a small number of Home Office officials were aware of some specific groups; In the period from 1990 to 2008 after direct fuding stopped, only two references were identified to indicate any Home Office links to the SDS."
10. EU: When super-regulators fight: the ‘one-stop shop’ in the proposed Data Protection Regulation (EU Law Analysis, link): "the EU vests its hopes for the effective enforcement of data protection law upon national data protection authorities (DPAs): the superheroes of the data protection world. They have considerable powers under the current data protection Directive, and the proposed Regulation would also give them more powers. But what if they disagree with each other?"
And see: Statewatch Analysis: Basic data protection principles in the proposed Data Protection Regulation: back to the future? by Steve Peers, Professof Law, University of Essex (pdf)
11. UK: Home Office withdraws plan to expand Campsfield House immigration centre (Oxford Mail, link) and see: Campaign to Close Campsfield: Press release: Government agents formally withdraw planning application (pdf): "Bill MacKeith, spokesperson for the Campaign to Close Campsfield said: 'This is a great victory. But the new government in May must implement the recommendations of the parliamentary Inquiry into Immigration Detention: a 28-day time limit to detention and full judicial oversight of individual decisions to detain. This would be a further step forward and entail some closures of detention centres. Above all, this is a chance to point to the need for the end of the barbaric imprisonment every year of 30,000 innocent people under 1971 Immigration Act powers. Close Campsfield. Close all immigration detention centres.'"
12. NETHERLANDS: Dutch court scraps telecommunications data retention law (PC World, link): "The Dutch data retention law requiring telecommunications operators and ISPs to store customer metadata for police investigations was scrapped by the District Court of the Hague on Wednesday." And: Data retention law struck down – for now (Bits of Freedom, link): "What will happen on the long term is unclear. That is up to Parliament and Opstelten’s successor. As the law has already been struck down, it seems self-evident that the law in its entirety should be revoked. The political party GroenLinks has already submitted a proposal along these lines to Parliament. But one thing is clear: this is not a done deal."
Full-text of the judgement (in Dutch): Privacy First and others v Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Freedom and Justice (pdf)
13. SPAIN: Woman suing police over relationship with undercover spy finds tracking device in her car - reports (The Guardian, link): "One of the women who is suing the police after discovering that her former boyfriend was an undercover police officer has found a tracking device in her car, it has been reported... it was discovered while she was at a conference - the Circumvention Tech Festival - that was held in Spain to discuss surveillance and censorship."
The original story (in German): Der Track des Lebens (taz.de, link) and see the campaign group: Police Spies Out of Lives
14. UK: Protests and Hunger Strikes Are Breaking Out at Immigration Detention Centers in the UK (Vice News, link): "Protests are spreading throughout the UK's immigration removal centers, with hunger strikes and yard occupations breaking out across at least six UK detention centers.
"Migrants and asylum seekers are protesting the conditions in which they are held, following a damning Parliamentary report last week, which called for limits of the length of time people can be detained, better conditions and an end to incarcerating pregnant and vulnerable people who have committed no crime."
See also: Coach blockade to stop mass deportation to Afghanistan (Anti-Raids Network, link) and Put Immigration Detention on trial - STOP the expansion of Campsfield (Public Hearing) (heyevent, link).
Some context: Parliamentarians call for "very radical shift in thinking" on immigration detention (Statewatch News Online)
15. UK: BLACKLISTING: New book launched at the House of Commons
See: Blacklisted: the book - Official trailer (Reel News, link), New book puts spotlight on role of covert police in human rights controversy (The Guardian, link) and “Every Man a Capitalist”: The long history of monitoring ‘unsuitable’ workers in the UK by Trevor Hemmings (Statewatch Journal, August 2013)
16. UK: Uninvestigated Northern Ireland killings 'tarnish UK's reputation' (The Guardian, link): "The government’s failure to carry out adequate investigations into killings more than 20 years ago involving the security forces in Northern Ireland has been condemned by a parliamentary watchdog."
Parliamentary report: Joint Committee on Human Rights: Human Rights Judgments (pdf) and see: The apparatus of impunity? Human rights violations and the Northern Ireland conflict: a narrative of official limitations on post-Agreement investigative mechanisms (Committee on the Administration of Justice, pdf)
17.UK: Foreign secretary hits out at 'apologists' for terror (Channel 4 News, link): "Philip Hammond praises the "brilliance" of spies, amid suggestions Mohammed Emwazi - aka "Jihadi John" - may have been radicalised after attempted recruitment by MI5." A response: Families and public deserve answers, not the blame game (CAGE, link), see also: Anti-terror strategy is seen as intrusive and secretive by many Muslims (The Guardian, link)
And: Full-text of Philip Hammond's speech (pdf). As Channel 4 News notes, Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, "is responsible for MI6 and the UK's surveillance headquarters GCHQ," but not MI5 - the internal security agency - which reportedly attempted to recruit Mohammed Emwazi.
18.EU: The Commission's 2015 justice "scoreboard" - glossing over the cracks?
The European Commission has published its justice "scoreboard" for 2015, "which gives an overview of the quality, independence and efficiency of the justice systems of the Member States." The Commission's press release highlights a number of "key findings" but neglects to mention the decline in the perceived independence of Member States' judicial systems. The data for 2013-14 show that in 11 of the EU's 28 Member States, the perceived independence of the judiciary declined compared to 2010-12.
19. UK extradition procedures may breach human rights, say peers (The Guardian, link): "UK extradition procedures may breach human rights and those facing removal should encounter fewer obstacles in obtaining legal aid, according to a House of Lords report." See: House of Lords Select Committee on Extradition Law: Extradition: UK Law and Practice (pdf), Evidence (992 pages, 6MB, pdf) and UK cannot be confident its extradition regime is protecting human rights, says Lords (parliament.uk, link)
20 Statewatch Analysis: Basic data protection principles in the proposed Data Protection Regulation: back to the future? by Steve Peers, Professof Law, University of Essex (pdf)
21. EU: New report on alternatives to immigration detention
"This report... constitutes a significant pooling of knowledge on the law and practice on detention decision-making and alternatives to detention in 6 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom). In addition, it includes legal research on the scope of Member States’ obligations to implement alternatives to immigration detention under international, European (i.e. Council of Europe) and EU law."
22. EU: European and national parliamentarians divided on the EU “Smart Borders Package”? (European Area of Freedom Security & Justice, link): "On February 23 the LIBE Committee has organized a interparliamentary meeting focused on the Smart Borders Package... The meeting served as a forum for the exchange of views between European and national parliamentarians, as well as the Commission and European agency representatives, in an aim to debate the possible future alternatives at technological and legal level of the “smart border package”."
See also: videos of meetings on 23 February and 24 February (links) and speakers' contributions (pdfs):
- Rob Rozenburg, European Commission: Presentation on the Commission's Technical Study on Smart Borders
- Evelian Brouwer, Associate Professor, VU University Amsterdam: Smart Borders and Law Enforcement Access: Legitimacy, Effectiveness and Proportionality
- Vesa Blomqvist, Finnish Border Guard: SMART BORDERS - land borders perspective
24. EU: Commission President calls for a European army
Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has called for an EU army in order "to improve the bloc's standing on the world stage, and to send a message to Moscow."
"An army like this would help us to better coordinate our foreign and defense policies, and to collectively take on Europe's responsibilities in the world," Juncker told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. "Europe's image has suffered dramatically and also in terms of foreign policy, we don't seem to be taken entirely seriously."
25. Tri-nation patrols at railway stations (The Budapest Times, link): "Joint patrols by Hungarian, Austrian and German police have begun to identify illegal immigrants at major railway stations, a head of department of Hungary’s riot police said this week. Balázs Petho said two Austrian and two German officers had started working with their Hungarian counterparts, checking on stations from which trains to Western Europe depart. According to figures from the national police, 231 illegal immigrants were detained in the past one day."
This is the second known instance of "tri-national" police patrols directed at migrants. In October last year, Germany, Italy and Austria began a similar initiative aimed at people attempting to leave Italy. See: Germany, Austria and Italy launch "trilateral controls" to deal with "the increasing numbers of refugees" (Statewatch News Online, November 2014)
26. EU: Document digest: Terrorism post-Riga, DNA ONE, EU Classified Information, cybersecurity and Directive on network and information security
Documents on the EU's current counter-terrorism initiatives (including border controls and monitoring the internet for "terrorist and extremist" content); enhancing the use of the European DNA data exchange network; the use of EU Classified Information; draft Council conclusions on cybersecurity; and the positions of the EU institutions on the proposed Directive on network and information security.
27.UK: Lynette White: Review into collapse of corruption trial (BBC News, link): "The collapse of the UK's biggest police corruption trial, which followed the wrongful conviction of three men for the murder of a Cardiff prostitute in 1988 will be led by a top barrister, the Home Secretary has announced."
Eight police officers were subsequently arrested but the case collapsed in 2011. On the new investigation, see: Home Secretary announces investigation into collapsed police trial (Home Office, link) and for background: Wales: Police arrested over "Cardiff Three" murder conspiracy(Statewatch Bulletin, March-April 2006)
28. UK: An Assessment of the Report of the Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom (Border Criminologies, link): "The report has taken six months to produce. Coming in at just under 80 pages, it synthesises testimonies from three public hearings and a selection of written submissions. It also draws on committee members’ visits to some detention sites in the UK and a trip to Sweden. Expert advice at the hearings was provided by a selection of NGOs, medics, civil servants, current and former detainees, although not, inexplicably, by academic researchers. So, what does the report actually say?" See also: Parliamentarians call for "very radical shift in thinking" on immigration detention (Statewatch News Online) and the Report (pdf)
29. EU: Council of the European Union: Use of the VIS with a view to handling asylum cases (LIMITE doc no 6747-15, pdf):
"SE [Sweden] raised a point on the link between Schengen visas issued by Member States and the flows of asylum seekers. SE expressed concerns over the use of Schengen visas in order to access EU territory in view of lodging applications for international protection. SE noted the link between the identification of asylum seekers in the VIS database and implications for the Dublin system, and deplored the lack of harmonization between MS in the application of the Visa Code, which may result in costly procedures for other MS where asylum seekers end up applying for protection."
And: Council Directive on the coordination and cooperation measures to facilitate consular protection for unrepresented citizens of the Union in third countries - Revised Presidency compromise (LIMITE doc no 6065-15, pdf) The Council developing its position.
30. European Commission and the High Resprentative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: JOINT CONSULTATION PAPER Towards a new European Neighbourhood Policy (pdf)
"One of the most often repeated criticisms of the ENP is a lacking sense of ownership with partners, across their societies, and the general public’s weak awareness of the policy’s aims and impact. It is clear that substantial efforts are needed in the context of the ENP review to improve both the ownership of this policy by partner countries and to improve communication of its objectives and results both within the EU and in the partner countries."
31. EU: Council of the European Union: Global Conference on Cyberspace 2015, The Hague, Netherlands - Draft lines to take (LIMITE doc no: 6181-15, pdf) and EnviCrimeNet - Intelligence Project on Environmental Crime - Preliminary Report on Environmental Crime in Europe (LIMITE doc no: 16438-14, pdf)
32. European Commission in a pickle over PNR
- Mexico and Argentina about to implement PNR laws requiring "the transfer of passenger data from air carriers that operate in [their] countries"
- The Commission has only 2-3 weeks to sort this out: airlines face fines if they do not comply and would break EU law if they do
A Council of the European Union document, dated 5 March 2015, shows that the EU is facing a crisis over third country demands for PNR [Passenger Name Record] data on flights from the EU to Mexico and Argentina. The document from the Spanish delegation: Information by the Commission on the PNR legislation adopted by Mexico and the Republic of Argentina requesting the transfer of PNR data from the EU (pdf) says that Mexico adopted PNR legislation in 2012 and has postponed implementation three times and that: "the present moratorium will expire on the 1st April and carriers will face financial sanctions of up to 30,000 dollars per flight if they do not comply and transfer the required passenger data..."
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments: "It should come as no surprise to the EU that having put three PNR agreements in place that other countries now want the same. What is surprising is that with just two to three weeks to go until Mexico and Argentina implement their national laws the Commission is being ask to take "urgent" action. They have known about the Mexican law since 2102 and that of Argentina in September last year.
Reaching agreement on new PNR deals, which meet EU data protection standards, is on past evidence going to take years especially for countries whose democratic standards and privacy laws may be questionable."
33. UK: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee: Current and future uses of biometric data and technologies (pdf):
"In its broadest sense, biometrics is the measurement and analysis of a biological characteristic (fingerprints, iris patterns, retinas, face or hand geometry) or a behavioural characteristic (voice, gait or signature).....
Three future trends in the application of biometrics were identified during the inquiry: the growth of unsupervised biometric systems, accessed via mobile devices, which verify identity; the proliferation of “second-generation” biometric technologies that can authenticate individuals covertly; and the linking of biometric data with other types of ‘big data’ as part of efforts to profile individuals....
In the absence of a biometrics strategy, there has been a worrying lack of Government oversight and regulation of aspects of this field. We were particularly concerned to hear that the police are uploading photographs taken in custody, including images of people not subsequently charged with, or convicted of, a crime, to the Police National Database and applying facial recognition software."
See also: MPs 'dismayed' that police continue to compile database of faces - Commons science and technology committee says practice of uploading custody photographs appears to flout high court ruling from 2012 (Guardian, link): " the Commons Science and Technology Committee said it was “dismayed” to learn that more than 12m photographs had been entered into the Police National Database without proper testing or oversight. It also noted that current practice appeared to flout a high court ruling from 2012 that said the contemporary policy of retaining custody photographs was unlawful. "
34. Measures by the EU law enforcement agency Europol relating to foreign fighters Bundestag printed paper 18/3910 (pdf) Questions by Member of the Bundestag Andrej Hunko and others and the Left Party parliamentary group and answers from the Federal government, including Focal Point Travellers", Focal Point CtW, "Clean IT", “Community Policing and prevention of radicalisation & terrorism" (CoPPRa) and Working Group DUMAS established by Europol which pursues the aim of supporting the EU Member States in combatting the phenomenon of “foreign fighters".
"Italy has overall leadership of the working group. “Co-drivers" have lead responsibility for the respective sub-working groups (SWG): Five SWG were established: • “Alert List” (headed by Austria), • “Outreach” (headed by Spain and Hungary), • “Best Practices” (headed by Great Britain and France), • “Facilitators” (headed by Spain and Great Britain), • “Indicators" (headed by Germany and Luxembourg)."
And: "According to the latest information from Europol a total of 536 contributions on 2835 persons had been transmitted to the Focal Point “Travellers” up until 31 January 2015."
35. EU-UK: European Commission: Report on equality between women and men 2014 (pdf): Professor Steve Peers observed: 'At this rate of change, it would take another 70 years to achieve gender equality' and see: Violence against women: Can EU law play a bigger role in combatting it (EU Law Analysis, link)
And see: International Women’s Day 2015: The shameful statistics that show why it is still important (The Independent, link)
Violence against women: Can EU law play a bigger role in combatting it?
36. EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Council of the European Union: Chapter II: PRINCIPLES and the One Stop Shop
• CHAPTER II: PRINCIPLES: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) - Chapter II (LIMITE doc no: 17072-rev4-14, dated 4 March 2015, pdf):
"The Presidency is of the opinion that the text set out in the Annex is the best possible compromise taking into account the various positions of delegations." 30 pages with 77 Footnotes with Member State positions.
• CHAPTER II PRINCIPLES: AUSTRIA DELEGATION: Comments and Proposals regarding Chapter II, in particular with a view to the issues of “legitimate interest”, “further processing” and “processing for statistical purposes” (LIMITE doc no: 6741-15, 3 March 2015, pdf)
• The one-stop-shop mechanism (LIMITE doc no: 6286-rev2-15, dated 4 March 2015, pdf) With 86 Footnotes and Member State reservations.
EU-UK-GCHQ-USA-NSA SURVEILLANCE
http://www.statewatch.org/eu-usa-data-surveillance.htm
1. New Zealand Used NSA System to Target Officials, Anti-Corruption Campaigner (The intercept, link): "New Zealand’s eavesdropping agency used an Internet mass surveillance system to target government officials and an anti-corruption campaigner on a neighboring Pacific island, according to a top-secret document... the Internet spy system XKEYSCORE to intercept documents authored by the closest aides and confidants of the prime minister on the tiny Solomon Islands. The agency also entered keywords into the system so that it would intercept documents containing references to the Solomons’ leading anti-corruption activist, who is known for publishing government leaks on his website.... None of the individuals named on the list appear to have any association with terrorism."
And see: Revealed: The names NZ targeted using NSA's XKeyscore system (New Zealand Herald, link) and Document (pdf)
2. USA: NSA sued by Wikimedia, rights groups over mass surveillance (Reuters, link): "The U.S. National Security Agency was sued on Tuesday by Wikimedia and other groups challenging one of its mass surveillance programs that they said violates Americans' privacy and makes individuals worldwide less likely to share sensitive information.
"The lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, where the spy agency is based, said the NSA is violating U.S. constitutional protections and the law by tapping into high-capacity cables, switches and routers that move Internet traffic through the United States."
See also: The NSA Has Taken Over the Internet Backbone. We're Suing to Get it Back. (American Civil Liberties Union, link) and: Court document: Wikimedia and others v NSA (pdf)
3. U.K. Parliament says banning Tor is unacceptable and impossible (The Daily Dot, link): "Just months after U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said he wants to ban encryption and online anonymity, the country's parliament today released a briefing saying that the such an act is neither acceptable nor technically feasible."
It is not the UK Parliament but rather the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) which has prompted the above article. Whether UK politicians attempt to introduce legislation or policy to hinder or try to ban the use of encryption or anonymity systems remain to be seen. See: POSTNOTE: The darknet and online anonymity (pdf), and a note from the EU's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator (pdf) which suggests finding ways for state authorities to get around the use of encryption by companies and individuals.
4. Snowden Archive (Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, link): "This Archive is a complete collection of all documents that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked in June 2013 to journalists Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, and subsequently were published by news media, such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Mundo and The Intercept... The Archive also contains some documents that the U.S. Government has published which are helpful in understanding the leaked documents."
See also: Statewatch Observatory on data surveillance, containing month-by-month coverage of the scandal as it has unfolded.
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