-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: EDRi-gram 27 September 2023: Civil society urges EU to
regulate police tech in AI Act, say no to CSAR mass surveillance, & more!
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2023 10:55:07 +0200
From: EDRi - European Digital Rights <[email protected]>
EDRi-gram 27 September 2023: Civil society urges EU to regulate police
tech in AI Act, say no to CSAR mass surveillance, & more!
A sign reading "EDRi-gram" <https://edri.org/take-action/edri-gram/>
Dear supporters,
The weather might be cooling off but the digital rights world is heating
up with activity.
Civil society continues to fight against dystopian surveillance technology.
More than 85 organisations have called on EU governments to *say no to
the CSA Regulation* until it fully protects online rights, freedoms, and
security. Over 115 civil society organisations are urging EU lawmakers
to *regulate the use of AI technology for harmful and discriminatory
surveillance by law enforcement*.
In the *Czech Republic*, EDRi member Iuridicum Remedium have details on
the Czech *police’s illegal use of a facial recognition system*.
In this EDRi-gram you will find out more about:
* *Privacy & Data protection*
o Meta pledges to ask EU users for consent before showing
behavioural ads <#privacyarticle2>
o Czech police use facial recognition system, IuRe finds out
details <#privacyarticle3>
o Polish Senate calls Pegasus illegal and demands scrutiny over
secret services
<#privacyarticle4>
* *Mass Surveillance & AI*
o EU lawmakers must regulate the harmful use of tech by law
enforcement in the AI Act <#aiarticle1>
o Open letter: EU countries should say no to the CSAR mass
surveillance proposal <#privacyarticle1>
o Potential loopholes in the AI Act could allow use of intrusive
tech on ‘national security’ grounds <#aiarticle2>
<#aiarticle3>**
* *EDRi's Recommendations <#recommended>*
* *Jobs & Events! <#jobs>*
Illustration showing people being labeled and targeted by the police;
journalists; activists, etc.
<https://edri.org/our-work/polish-senate-calls-pegasus-illegal-and-demands-scrutiny-over-secret-services>
Polish Senate calls Pegasus illegal and demands scrutiny over
secret services
////EDRi member,/Panoptykon Foundation <https://panoptykon.org/>
/
The Senate of Poland concluded its investigation on the use of Pegasus
by Polish secret services to spy on opposition politicians and
unapologetic public persons.
They declared that *Pegasus should be considered illegal* in Poland and
the secret services should be put under strict and independent scrutiny.
*Doubts also arose around the fairness of Poland’s 2019 elections*.*Read
more.
<https://edri.org/our-work/polish-senate-calls-pegasus-illegal-and-demands-scrutiny-over-secret-services>*
Meta pledges to ask EU users for consent before showing
behavioural ads
////Mickey Manakas <https://twitter.com/m_manakas>, PR
Manager, EDRi member, /noyb <https://noyb.eu/en>/
In a surprise announcement, Meta made the long overdue promise to
finally *ask its users for their consent before showing ads* – at least
if they live in the European Union, EEA or Switzerland.
According to Meta, the change is due to a new interpretation of the GDPR
by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). What about the fact that
the company has been in legal trouble over its advertising business in
the past five years?*Read more.
<https://edri.org/our-work/meta-pledges-to-ask-eu-users-for-consent-before-showing-behavioural-ads/>*
Czech police use facial recognition system, IuRe finds out details
////EDRi member, /Iuridicum Remedium <https://iure.org/> /
EDRi member Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) have details on the Czech police’s
*illegal use of a facial recognition system*. The country’s data
protection authorities were not consulted in advance on the system,
which is being used for biometric identification.
IuRe's findings have led to increased scrutiny of the use of the system
and an examination by the Czech Office for Personal Data
Protection.*Read more.
<https://edri.org/our-work/czech-police-use-facial-recognition-system-iure-finds-out-details>*
Donate to EDRi <https://edri.org/take-action/donate/>
<https://edri.org/our-work/civil-society-statement-regulate-police-tech-ai-act/>
EU lawmakers must regulate the harmful use of tech by law
enforcement in the AI Act
////EDRi <https://edri.org/> & EDRi member, /Access Now
<https://www.accessnow.org/>/
As the European Union inches closer to finalising the AI Act, civil
society organisations are concerned about the unchecked, discriminatory
and mass surveillance due to the use of AI in *policing and migration
control*.
Thus, *115 civil society organisations* are asking EU policymakers to
regulate the use of AI systems by law enforcement, migration control and
national security authorities throughout Europe. *Read more
<https://edri.org/our-work/civil-society-statement-regulate-police-tech-ai-act/>.*
Open letter: EU countries should say no to the CSAR mass
surveillance proposal
////EDRi <https://edri.org/>
EDRi and 81 organisations have sent an open letter to European
governments to once again urge them *to say no to the Child Sexual Abuse
(CSA) Regulation* until it fully protects online rights, freedoms, and
security.
This public call builds on the widely supported academic and tech
position
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Aeex72MtFBjKhExRTooVMWN9TC-pbH-5LEaAbMF91Y/edit?pli=1>
of nearly *500 scientists and researchers*, who have warned that the
proposal is technically dangerous and poses a severe threat to
encryption. *Read more
<https://edri.org/our-work/open-letter-eu-countries-should-say-no-to-the-csar-mass-surveillance-proposal/>*.
Potential loopholes in the AI Act could allow use of intrusive
tech on ‘national security’ grounds
EDRi affiliate, /European Center for Not-for-Profit Law
<https://ecnl.org/> & /Stop Killer Robots
<https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/>
Both the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (COE)
negotiations are considering *excluding AI systems designed, developed
and used for military purposes*, matters of national defence and
national security from the scope of their final regulatory frameworks.
If this indeed happens, we will have a *huge regulatory gap* regarding
such systems. *Read more
<https://edri.org/our-work/potential-loopholes-in-the-ai-act-could-allow-use-of-intrusive-tech-on-national-security-grounds>.*
Read
How the European Parliament will vote for and against biometric
mass surveillance?
Joe McNamee <https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemcnamee/>/
/
The purpose of this article is to explain the decision-making process
for the AI Act and how it risks leading to the rollout of AI-powered
biometric mass surveillance. *We can, together, stop biometric mass
surveillance*, for the good of people in the EU and for populations
around the globe. *Read more*
<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-european-parliament-vote-against-biometric-mass-joe-mcnamee/>.
Do
Demand a future without manipulation
The Greens/EFA <https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/>
In a world with the EU Digital Services Act, surveillance-based
advertising will be banned to help the industry to innovate and start
using respectful ways of advertising. *Contextual advertising, which
does not rely on personal data, will become the norm*. Demand a future
without manipulation. *Act now!
<https://afuturewithoutmanipulation.eu/surveillance-based-advertising/#afuturewithoutmanipulation>*
Watch
Telegram isn’t as private as you think
NBTV, with Naomi Brockwell
<https://www.youtube.com/@NaomiBrockwellTV>
Telegram advertises itself as a private messaging app, and has attracted
over 800 million users. But, *if you're looking for private
communication, this is not the app to recommend*. This video explains
how encryption actually works on Telegram: how it's not possible to
end-to-end encrypt group chats, and how direct messages are not private
by default. *Watch the video
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtRQKQkvUfE>*.
Listen
The world of mesh networking with Elektra Wagenrad
EDRi member, /fsfe <https://fsfe.org/index.en.html>
/
With this episode the Software Freedom Podcast opens the door to the
fascinating and sometimes complex world of mesh networking. *If you are
new to this world*, this episode is an easy entrance to it. Elektra not
only explains the theory behind the protocols but also dives deeper into
the philosophical idea of it.*Listen to the podcast
<https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-14.en.html>*.
<https://edri.org/our-work/edri-gram-13-september-2023>
*EDRi *| Policy Advisor (2 year position)
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/edri-is-looking-for-a-policy-advisor/>
| Brussels, Belgium
*ICCL *| Head of Research and Policy
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/iccl-is-hiring-head-of-research-and-policy/>
| not mentioned
*Access Now* | Senior Finance Officer & Grants and Contracts Manager
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/access-now-is-hiring-for-program-assistant-advocacy-policy-analyst-latam-grants-program-officer-legal-compliance-fellowship-legal-officer-latam/>
| Brussels, Belgium & remote
*Civitates* | Senior Programme Manager
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/civitates-is-hiring-for-a-senior-programme-manager-tech-and-democracy/>
| Brussels, Belgium & remote
*Freedom of the Press Foundation* | Senior Security Engineer
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/freedom-of-the-press-foundation-is-hiring-for-a-senior-security-engineer/>
| Remote
*Human Rights Watch* | Director, Technology and Human rights
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/technologist-information-security-vacancy-at-human-rights-watch/>
| Multiple Locations Considered
*Liberties* | Communication and Campaign assistant (intern)
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/liberties-is-hiring-for-a-communication-campaign-assistant-intern/>
| Berlin, Germany
*Mozilla Foundation* | Executive Director
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/mozilla-is-hiring-for-marketing-manager-responsible-computer-science-challenge-fellow-senior-program-officer-thunderbird-front-end-web-developer/>
| Various
*noyb* |Full stack developer & Data protection lawyer
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/noyb-is-hiring-for-a-legal-trainee/>
| Vienna, Austria
*Privacy International* | Advocacy officer
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/privacy-international-is-hiring-for-various-positions/>
| London, UK
*SOMO* | Tech Mergers Project Coordinator
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/somo-is-hiring-for-a-tech-mergers-project-coordinator/>
| Amsterdam, the Netherlands or Brussels, Belgium
*Statewatch* | Communications worker
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/fundraiser-vacancy-at-statewatch/>
| London, UK
*Systemic Justice* | Systemic Justice roster & Student Researchers
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/systemic-justice-is-hiring-for-finance-coordinator-student-researchers-systemic-justice-roster-senior-treasurer/>
| Various
*The Center for Democracy & Technology* | Senior Policy Analyst
elections & democracy & Deputy Director, Free Expression Project
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/the-center-for-democracy-technology-is-hiring-for-several-positions/>
| Washington, D.C.
*Wikimedia Foundation*｜Creative Associate - Online Fundraising,Privacy
Specialist & Senior Site Reliability Engineer
<https://edri.org/take-action/careers/wikimedia-foundation-is-hiring-for-various-positions/>｜
Various
04.09 - 23.11.2023｜*Virtual School on Internet Governance*
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/virtual-school-on-internet-governance/>｜by
VirtualSig
03.10.2023｜*Imposter syndrome in activism: how do we cope?
<https://digitalrights.formstack.com/forms/wellbeingmonthly4>*｜by
TeamCOMMUNITY
04.10 - 05.10.2023｜*The future of speech online 2023: generative AI
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/the-future-of-speech-online-2023-generative-ai/>*｜by
CDT
05.10.2023｜*The Good Lobby tracker: report launch
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/the-good-lobby-tracker-report-launch/>*｜by
The Good Lobby
11.10 – 12.10.2023｜*EU DisinfoLab 2023 annual conference
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/eu-disinfolab-2023-annual-conference/>*｜by
EU DisinfoLab
24.10 - 26.10.2023｜*Digital Sovereignty Conference*
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/digital-sovereignty-conference/>｜by
Disco Slovenia
02.11.2023｜*Tech Prom
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/2023-tech-prom/>*｜ by Center for
Democracy and Technology
13.11 – 14.11.2023｜*Tackling disinformation: Strengthening democracy
through information integrity*
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/tackling-disinformation-strengthening-democracy-through-information-integrity/>｜by
OECD
20.11 – 21.11.2023｜*Disinformation Congress*
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/disinformation-congress/>｜by
Disinformation Congress
25.02 – 27.02.2024 ｜*EDMO Scientific Conference: call for papers
<https://edri.org/take-action/events/save-the-date-call-for-papers-edmo-scientific-conference-2024/>*｜by
EDMO
*About us*
European Digital Rights is a dynamic collective of 50+ NGOs, experts,
advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights
across Europe. We advocate for robust and enforced laws, inform and
mobilise people, promote a healthy and accountable technology market,
and build a movement committed to digital rights in a connected world.
Find EDRi on *Mastodon* for digital rights news updates
<https://eupolicy.social/@edri>.
*Support our work <https://edri.org/take-action/> to defend your rights
online.*
*DONATE NOW!* <https://edri.org/take-action/donate-now/>
<https://edri.org>
EDRi-gram Coordinator: Chiara Miraglia
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiara-miraglia/>
EDRi-gram Editor: Viktoria Tomova <https://twitter.com/tomova_viktoria>
& Shubham Kaushik <https://twitter.com/_shubhamk_>
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