America is starting to get why data protection is so important

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your shot in the arm of digital rights news and analysis. A slightly longer newsletter than usual today, but there's a lot to discuss. Here goes… THE EQUIFAX DATA LEAK is what can mostly politely be termed as an omnishambles. Hackers made off with the personal information of 143 million Americans, and … Continue reading America is starting to get why data protection is so important

These are the EU countries flouting privacy rights with data retention laws

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your nudge in the ribs of digital rights news and analysis. DATA RETENTION LAWS ARE UNLAWFULLY IN FORCE across 21 European countries, according to a survey by Privacy International: http://bit.ly/2xOT6UC Data retention – where governments force internet service providers (ISPs) to log the activities of their customers so authorities can comb through … Continue reading These are the EU countries flouting privacy rights with data retention laws

Online anonymity is under threat, and not just in China

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your toe on the tripwire of digital rights news and analysis. CHINA IS TRYING (AGAIN) TO MAKE ONLINE ANONYMITY a thing of the past. According to new rules from the country's "cyberspace administration", website operators have to ensure that anyone commenting on their site is using their real name – which they … Continue reading Online anonymity is under threat, and not just in China

Online power’s troubling concentration

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your teapot in the orbit of digital rights news and analysis. IT'S RARE TO SEE THE EXCESSIVELY POWERFUL complaining about their power, but that's what we saw last week when Cloudflare threw the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website to the wolves: http://for.tn/2vlJUV3 What's Cloudflare? The most important internet infrastructure company you've never heard … Continue reading Online power’s troubling concentration

Bad Apple

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your home on the range of digital rights news and analysis. APPLE HAS SCRUBBED DOZENS OF VPN APPS from its Chinese App Store. Virtual private networks (VPNs) allow people to re-reroute their online activities in a way that makes it hard to tell where they are, and to read things that are … Continue reading Bad Apple

EU Court kicks mass surveillance yet again

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your flash in the pan of digital rights news and analysis. RUSSIANS HAVE BEEN MARCHING against the country's ever-expanding censorship of the internet. On Sunday, around a thousand people protested prominent cases of people being prosecuted for their online writings and videos. The day before, the Russian parliament passed a law prohibiting the … Continue reading EU Court kicks mass surveillance yet again

So many ways to tackle Facebook over privacy

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your paddle up the creek of digital rights news and analysis. THE WORLD OF FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY provides rich pickings this week. First up, we have the German federal cartel office signalling that it thinks the company has been breaking antitrust law with its privacy practices. The authority's investigation is almost complete, and … Continue reading So many ways to tackle Facebook over privacy

Here’s what the EU’s incoming digital chief thinks about digital rights

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your jiggle in the hips of digital rights news and analysis. MEET THE NEW (ALMOST) BOSS: The EU is about to get a new head of digital policy, as the old one, Germany's Günther Oettinger, has shuffled off to deal with the bloc's budget. The new "digital economy and society" commissioner-designate, a notably … Continue reading Here’s what the EU’s incoming digital chief thinks about digital rights

Privacy vs the news

WELCOME to Connected Rights, your weekly stroll down the poorly-lit lanes of digital rights. THE MEDIA NEEDS TO TRACK YOU TO SURVIVE, according to an open letter sent to EU lawmakers by a host of news publishers, including Der Spiegel, Le Monde, the Financial Times and the Guardian: http://bit.ly/2qA3P0W. So what's all this about then? The issue here is the EU's new … Continue reading Privacy vs the news