European Court of Justice on saving dynamic IP-addresses.
Tagesschau.de: EuGH zur Erfassung von IP-Adressen – Speichern nur mit berechtigtem Interesse »
What this boils down to is if the government is allowed to store information about people visiting its websites. The ECJ ruling seems to send mixed signals.
Update: Falkvinge – Supreme Court rules that IP address allocation is personal data, but to what use? »
The European Central Bank wants EU lawmakers to tighten proposed new rules on digital currencies such as bitcoin, fearing they might one day weaken its own control over money supply in the euro zone.
Reuters: ECB urges EU to curb virtual money on fear of losing control »
The Intercept: Ecuador Cuts Internet Access for Julian Assange to Preserve Neutrality in U.S. Election »
5 July podcast – in Swedish.
https://soundcloud.com/5july/pod22
The investigatory powers tribunal, which is the only court that hears complaints against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, said the security services operated secret regimes to collect vast amounts of personal communications data, tracking individual phone and web use and large datasets of confidential personal information, without adequate safeguards or supervision for more than 10 years.
The Guardian: UK security agencies unlawfully collected data for 17 years, court rules »
EDRi: Corporate-sponsored privacy confusion in the EU on trade and data protection »
EuroActiv: European Commission paralysed over data flows in TiSA trade deal »
The day started with the rumor that Wikileaks editor in chief Julian Assange is dead. The reason seems to be the following mystifying tweets…
It’s possible that Assange made arrangements for a “dead man’s switch” release of content—that if he were arrested or otherwise rendered incommunicado, a cache of files held back would be released in an effort to damage the states and parties most likely involved in cutting him off from communication with WikiLeaks’ staff.
Wikileaks also tweeted that Assange’s Internet connection has been cut off by a “state party”. But nothing about Assange’s health.
At the same time, we learn that Swedish prosecutors will not be able to interview Assange this week. The date has been changed again – this time by Ecuador – to November 14. The reason is said to allow for Assange’s lawyers to attend.
If I may speculate, I guess that Assange would like to focus on the Clinton e-mails and the US election campaign before tackling the Swedish case. And there might be real security issues. Recently one of Assange’s UK lawyers was killed, falling in front of a London underground train. So maybe Assange simply doesn’t want any unknown people in his quarters before the US elections.
Meanwhile, in the US everyone is waiting for the next batch of leaked Clinton e-mails from Wikileaks.
/ HAX
Ars Technica: Assange’s Internet “intentionally severed by state party” »
Update, a tweet from Wikileaks: »We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange’s internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT, shortly after publication of Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speechs.«
I’m a free marketeer. I believe that free trade would be hugely beneficial for all.
I also believe in a free and open Internet. Especially as it provides a level playing field on which entrepreneurs from all over the world can join a global market, 24/7.
And I’m not at all happy with politicians and bureaucrats trying to force me to choose between the two.
The CETA (EU-Canada) and TTIP (EU-US) trade agreements are problematic. CETA will undermine Europeans right to data protection and privacy online. The same goes for TTIP, which also might contain intellectual property regulations undermining the principle that Internet service providers are not responsible for what their customers are up to in their cables (the mere conduit principle). That would have huge implications, leading to a strictly controlled Internet where everything you are up to must be approved in advance. When it comes to TTIP, we still have no comprehensive information about what is going to be included or not when it comes to IP – as negotiations are carried out behind closed doors.
Also, the ISDS mechanism in these trade agreements will make a much needed and long overdue copyright reform impossible.
But then, again, these trade agreements are not really about free trade. They are about »harmonizing« rules and regulations. So, they are really about regulating trade.
If you want free trade, all you have to do is to get rid of customs fees and other trade barriers. That would benefit us and all of the humanity greatly. But that is not what the politic and bureaucratic elite hope for. They want to regulate and control. The EU even has a special sub-bureaucracy for »trade defense«.
So, I don’t buy into it when they claim that these »free trade agreements« are about free trade.
I’m standing with free trade. And I’m standing with a free and open Internet. It is perfectly possible and logical to combine these standpoints with being critical to CETA and TTIP.
/ HAX
Thanks to the Snowden revelations, it was proven that Canada was conducting mass surveillance activities within the so-called “Five Eyes” arrangement. If brought to court, as the Austrian student Max Schrems did with the EU-US agreement on transfer of personal data (the “Safe Harbor agreement”), the adequacy status given by the EU could be overturned. However, if CETA is ratified, the EU would be prohibited from protecting personal data in this way.
EDRi: CETA puts the protection of our privacy and personal data at risk »
The UK’s public prosecutor has demanded that social media users who post “humiliating” photoshopped images and memes should face jail, as well as those who incite “virtual mobs” because they are “opposed to that person’s opinions”.
Breitbart: Trolls Who Post ‘Humiliating’ Memes Could Be Jailed under UK Guidelines »
