Blog | Mass surveillance
Cloak-and-Dagger and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has an important task – to distribute cash to people who need it -. It’s a critical function in our society, especially at a time of instability like the COVID-19 crisis. This task is necessarily a feat of …
DRI welcomes landmark data privacy judgement
Digital Rights Ireland welcomes the judgement [PDF, 43kb] from the European Court of Justice (CJEU) which has found that Safe Harbour, a regime allowing the transfer of EU citizens’ private data to the United States, is illegal. DRI was a party to the case (Schrems vs Data …
What would the implications of a CJEU ruling against Safe Harbour be?
AG Bot gave a strong pointer to the CJEU today in relation to the Schrems case, to which Digital Rights Ireland is a party. At a recent conference, solicitor Simon McGarr spoke about possible implications of a negative ruling. …
Opinion of Advocate General on Safe Harbour
Digital Rights Ireland welcomes the opinion of Advocate General Bot from the European Court of Justice in the Strand is versus data protection Commissioner case. Digital Rights Ireland was a party to the case and explained its concerns about the whole Safe Harbour regime to …
Guest Post: Privacy International GCHQ Surveillance Tribunal Win
Following their court win against UK spying last week, here’s a guest post from Privacy International setting out the implications of their case and what they plan to do next: Privacy International, Bytes for All and other human rights groups are celebrating a major victory …
Leaked: European Parliament legal opinion on data retention
Our friends at Access have obtained a copy of the much anticipated European Parliament legal opinion on data retention the day before it is due to be considered by the Parliament. This is a report by the Parliament’s Legal Service which sets out an authoritative interpretation of the …
Data retention held unconstitutional in Slovenia
The Slovenian Constitutional Court has ruled data retention to be unconstitutional and ordered deletion of data collected under the law. Following an application by the Slovenian Information Commissioner the court held that data retention is disproportionate on the basis that: unselective retention of data in …
Surveillance in Ireland: towards transparency
Where can you find the annual reports of the judges who oversee surveillance in Ireland? What is the agreement under which Irish ISPs provide communications data to gardaí? In what cases have the courts considered interception of communications under Irish law? What internal controls do …
One year after Snowden: Where are we now?
It’s now a year since Edward Snowden went public with evidence of mass surveillance and extensive abuses by the NSA, GCHQ and other intelligence agencies. What has changed since then? A global study published today examines responses by governments, parliaments, media and others, finding that …
ECJ says: EU-mandated mass surveillance “entails an interference with the fundamental rights of practically the entire European population”
Europe’s highest court has given a judgement in the challenge taken by Irish human rights advocacy group Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) to the EU’s regime of Data Retention and mass surveillance. The Court has found that data retention “entails a wide-ranging and particularly serious interference …
European Court ruling condemns mass surveillance
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice today gave an important opinion in our favour in a case brought by Digital Rights Ireland to challenge European mass surveillance law. The challenge – which we started in 2006 – is to the Data Retention …
Data retention threatens journalists also
Henry McDonald in today’s Guardian has an alarming story about Garda surveillance of crime journalists, including routine monitoring of their mobile phone calls and messages: Journalists in Ireland have raised concerns about the country’s draconian gagging orders on police officers talking to the media, including …