European Digital Rights (EDRi) is an international

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

headquartered in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. EDRi is a network collective of

non-profit organizations A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

(NGO), experts, advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights across the continent. EDRi is made of more than 40 NGOs, as well as experts, advocates and academics from all across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

History

European Digital Rights (EDRi) is a not-for-profit association registered in

. EDRi was founded in June 2002 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

by ten

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

s from seven countries, as a result of a growing awareness of the importance of European policymaking in the digital environment. The group was created in response to some of the earliest challenges in this policy area. Its founding board members were Maurice Wessling from Bits of Freedom, Andy Müller-Maguhn from the

Chaos Computer Club The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of Hacker (computer security), hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters ...

and Meryem Marzouki from Imaginons un Réseau Internet Solidaire. Since inception, EDRi has grown significantly. In October 2014, 34

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

organisations from 19 different countries in Europe had EDRi membership, and the organisation continued to grow. The need for cooperation among digital rights organisations active in Europe was increasing as more regulation regarding the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

and

is proposed by European institutions, or by international institutions with strong effect in Europe. In March 2021, EDRi comprised 44 NGOs, as well as experts, advocates and academics from all across Europe.

Members

* * ("Internet Freedom Initiative") * * VIBE!AT * Human Rights League * Internet Society – Bulgaria * *

IT-Political Association of Denmark The IT-Political Association (Danish: IT-Politisk Forening, commonly known as IT-Pol) is a Danish non-profit NGO, which works to collect information on IT and convey this to politicians and the society to get the best possible grounds for legislat ...

(IT-Pol) * Electronic Frontier Finland (EFFI) *

La Quadrature du Net La Quadrature du Net ('' Squaring the Net'' in French) is a French advocacy group that promotes digital rights and freedoms for its citizens. It advocates for French and European legislation to respect the founding principles of the Internet, m ...

(CCC e.V.) * Digitalcourage * * (FIfF e.V.) * (FITUG e.V.) *

Free Software Foundation Europe The Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. (FSFE) is an organization that supports free software and all aspects of the free software movement in Europe, with registered chapters in several European countries. It is a registered voluntary associat ...

* Wikimedia Deutschland * Homo Digitalis * Digital Rights Ireland * ("Association for the Freedom of Interactive Electronic Communications") * HERMES Center * Metamorphosis * Bits of Freedom * * (EFN) * Modern Poland Foundation * Panoptykon Foundation * Associação D3 - Defesa dos Direitos Digitais * (APTI) * Share Foundation * * Xnet * DFRI (Digital Freedom and Rights Association) * Alternative Informatics Association * Article 19 * Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) * Open Rights Group * Statewatch *

Access Now Access Now is a non-profit organization headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City, in the United States. It was founded in California in July 2009 and focuses on digital civil rights. The organization issues reports on global Internet censorship, ...

* NOYB *

Privacy International Privacy International (PI) is a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. First formed in 1990, registered as a non-profit company in 2002 and as a charity in 2012, PI is based in London. Its ...

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

(EFF) *

Electronic Privacy Information Center The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is an independent nonprofit research center established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Based in Washington, D.C., their mission i ...

(EPIC) Former: * Icelandic Digital Freedom Society * Society for Open Internet Technologies

Activities

EDRi's objective is to promote, protect, and uphold civil rights in the field of information and communication technology. This includes many issues relating to

and

digital rights Digital rights are those human rights and Natural and legal rights, legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other Consumer electronics, electronic devices, and teleco ...

, from data retention to

and software patents, from the right to data protection and privacy to freedom of speech online, from privatised enforcement to

cybersecurity Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...

. EDRi provides a strong civil society voice and platform to ensure that European policy, which affects the

digital environment A digital environment is an integrated communications environment where digital devices communicate and manage the content and activities within it. The concept is based on digital electronics systems which are integrated and implemented for a glo ...

, is in line with fundamental rights. Recently, EDRi highlighted fundamental rights issues in the current

collective rights management Collective rights management is the licensing of copyright and related rights by organisations acting on behalf of rights owners. Collective management organisations (CMOs), sometimes also referred to as collecting societies, typically represen ...

regime and privacy implications of online tracking. The organisation continues to defend citizens' right to private copying, air travellers' privacy and the right to

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

in the notice and takedown debates in Europe. It supports improving citizens' access to audiovisual online content and promotes a legal protection of

Net neutrality Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...

in Europe. EDRi also fights for an update of

, and against blanket retention of communications data. EDRi's key priorities are currently privacy, surveillance, net neutrality and copyright reform. In addition to regular publications, such as booklets known as the "EDRi papers", EDRi publishes yearly reports and a bi-weekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe, the EDRi-gram. Among key campaigns launched by European Digital Rights are, in 2003 and 2011, against

passenger name record A passenger name record (PNR) is a record in the database of a computer reservation system (CRS) that contains the itinerary for a passenger or a group of passengers travelling together. The concept of a PNR was first introduced by airlines that ...

s (PNRs), in 2005, against

data retention Data retention defines the policies of persistent data and records management for meeting legal and business data archival requirements. Although sometimes interchangeable, it is not to be confused with the Data Protection Act 1998. The differe ...

and in 2010 and in favour of a copyright reform. EDRi actively participated in the vast campaign against ACTA which successfully ended with the rejection of the proposal by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in July 2012. During the European elections 2014, EDRi led an innovative campaign to raise the profile of digital rights issues. To this end, EDRi's members drafted a 10-point Charter of Digital Rights that candidates running for the European Parliament could promise to defend. These principles include the promotion of transparency and citizen participation; the support for data protection and privacy, unrestricted access to the Internet, an update for copyright legislation; promotion of online anonymity and encryption, multistakeholderism, and

open source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

. European Digital Rights and its members fought as well for the

General Data Protection Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of ...

. Through an important awareness-raising campaign, citizens were able to contact

Members of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

representing their country in order to ask them to defend fundamental rights to privacy and

data protection Data protection may refer to: * Information privacy, also known as data privacy * Data security {{Authority control ...

. After the regulation was passed, EDRi associates began to file complaints to enforce it. Launched in October 2020 and coordinated by EDRi, ReclaimYourFace is a European movement that brings people's voices into the democratic debate about the use of our biometric data. The coalition calls for a prohibition on the use of our most sensitive data for mass surveillance in public spaces due to its impact on our rights and freedoms. The initiative launched a

European Citizens' Initiative The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. T ...

in February 2021 and calls on the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

to strictly regulate the use of biometric surveillance technologies.

Notes

References

External links