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Article European Court of Human Rights: secret surveillance in Poland violates citizens’ privacy rights According to the precedent judgment announced today by the European Court of Human Rights, the operational-control regime, the retention of communications data, and the secret-surveillance regime under the Anti-Terrorism Act in Poland violate the right to privacy. The activists from Poland’s… Text
Article Anxious about your health? Facebook won’t let you forget There is little point in telling Facebook which posts you do not want to see – it will not listen. Text
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Article Successful advocacy: the government declares no further extension of data retention obligation Data retention obligation will not be further extended in Polish law on electronic communication. However, the current, unlawful scope of telecommunication data retention remains unchanged. Our advocacy effort proved successful. Text
Report Algorithms of trauma: new case study shows that Facebook doesn’t give users real control over disturbing surveillance ads A case study examined by Panoptykon Foundation and showcased by the Financial Times, demonstrates how Facebook uses algorithms to deliver personalised ads that may exploit users’ mental vulnerabilities. The experiment shows that users are unable to get rid of disturbing content: disabling sensitive… Text
Article Big Tech platforms are hurting us. 50 organisations urge the EU to #fixalgorithms The list of negative consequences of how dominant online platforms shape our experience online is neither short nor trivial. From exploiting users’ vulnerabilities, triggering psychological trauma, depriving people of job opportunities to pushing disturbing content to others, these are just some… Text
Article Mozilla Explains: What Does AI Know About Me? Algorithmic decision-making can carry more weight than you might expect. While algorithms do innocuous or helpful things like changing the traffic signals when you approach an intersection, they also decide what content to show in your social media feed. There are also algorithms that assist real… Text
Article Can the EU Digital Services Act contest the power of Big Tech’s algorithms? A progressive report on the Digital Services Act (DSA) adopted by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in the European Parliament in July is the first major improvement of the draft law presented by the European Commission in December. MEPs expressed support for default… Text
Article Who will not be blocked by Facebook? SIN wins the first court battle The District Court in Warsaw (Appellate Division) upheld its interim measures ruling from 2019 in which it temporarily prohibited Facebook from removing fan pages, run by the Polish NGO “SIN”, on Facebook and Instagram, as well as from blocking individual posts. This means that – until the case is… Text
Article ePrivacy – open letter to the European Parliament from 30 rights organisations We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, when it comes to the ePrivacy Regulation, on which work began in 2017. Text
Article Campaign against surveillance: Nobody will tell you when they will follow you On 22 March 2021, a group of journalists and activists published a letter they had received from the non-existent “Agency of National Security” on their social media profiles, informing them that they were subject to surveillance. The letter was accompanied by a message notifying them that it is… Text
Article SIN versus Facebook case explained The Digital Freedom Fund prepared an animation explaining the SIN versus Facebook case, in which Panoptykon Foundation fights against private censorship online. WATCH Text
Article Polish law on “protecting the freedoms of social media users” will do exactly the opposite Polish government’s proposal for a new law on “protecting free speech of social media users” introduces data retention, a new, questionable definition of “unlawful content”, and an oversight body (Free Speech Council) that is likely to be politically compromised. In this context, “Surveillance and… Text