25. March 2025

Intelligence – an extension of diplomacy?

The transatlantic dimension of intelligence cooperation is…

by Mikael LohseChief Specialist and Deputy Intelligence Ombudsman, Office of the Intelligence Ombudsman in Finland

Mikael Lohse is Chief Specialist and Deputy Intelligence Ombudsman at the Office of the Intelligence Ombudsman in Finland. He is Adjunct Professor of Legal Informatics and Intelligence Studies.

16. January 2024

The Pegasus scandal in Poland – between old problems with state surveillance and the current rule of law crisis

The abuse of state surveillance in Poland can only be…

by Barbara Grabowska-MorozResearch Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute

Barbara Grabowska-Moroz is a research fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute and previously worked as a lawyer and project coordinator for the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw. There she monitored legislative processes on issues including access to justice, surveillance law and criminal defence rights. Together with activists from the Panoptykon Foundation, she filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights regarding the lack of effective protection against illegal surveillance in Polish legislation.

23. October 2023

Finnish intelligence overseers’ right of access supersedes Originator Control

The Originator Control principle does not prevent the…

by Mikael LohseChief Specialist and Deputy Intelligence Ombudsman, Office of the Intelligence Ombudsman in Finland

Mikael Lohse is Chief Specialist and Deputy Intelligence Ombudsman at the Office of the Intelligence Ombudsman in Finland. He is Adjunct Professor of Legal Informatics and Intelligence Studies.

28. June 2022

Confronting a blunt Tool: Perspectives on Israel’s mass surveillance litigation

This “Israeli Snowden moment” might tip the scale towards…

by Amir CahaneResearcher, Israel Democracy Institute

Amir serves a researcher in the Israel Democracy Institute, where he conducts ongoing policy-driven research into comparative surveillance law, AI regulation and other topics pertaining to law and technology. Amir is a research fellow in the Federmann Cyber Security Research Center – Cyber Law Program the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Amir has published two books on online surveillance laws “Regulation of Online Surveillance in Israeli Law and Comparative Law” (2019) and “Oversight of Online Surveillance in Israel” (2020), both in Hebrew.

22. June 2022

Dutch watchdog orders bulk datasets held by intelligence services to be deleted

The Complaints Department of CTIVD has used its binding…

by Lotte HouwingPolicy Advisor & Researcher, Bits of Freedom

Lotte Houwing works as a researcher and policy advisor at Bits of Freedom, a Dutch NGO for internet freedoms. There she leads the government surveillance programme where she focuses on policy regulating the capabilities of the secret services with a strong focus on protections of the rights of privacy and freedom of communication. In this capacity she filed a successful complaint procedure against the unlawful detention of bulk datasets by the Dutch intelligence agencies. She has a special interest in the analysis of power in relationships between government institutions and people. She has a background in philosophy and graduated cum laude from her research master in law on the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 at the University of Groningen. When she finds time she publishes on the use of technlogy by the police. But mostly she will be found in her garden.

5. May 2022

The EU’s Proposed Data Act: Regulating International Flows of Non-Personal Data

The U.S. government has consistently denied deploying its…

by Kenneth ProppNon-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center

Kenneth Propp is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. He teaches European Union Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and is a senior research fellow at the Cross-Border Data Forum. From 2011-15, he served as Legal Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium.

25. March 2022

Major oversight gaps in the French intelligence legal framework

by Félix TréguerFélix Tréguer, post-doctoral researcher at CERI-Sciences Po, Editor-in-Chief of about:intel, & member of La Quadrature du Net, a French digital rights group

Félix Tréguer is associate researcher at CNRS and post-doctoral researcher at CERI Sciences Po in Paris. He is also a founding member of the French digital rights advocacy group La Quadrature du Net and holds a PhD in political studies from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). His research blends political history and theory, law as well as media and technology studies to look at the political history of the Internet and computing, power practices like surveillance and censorship, the algorithmic governmentality of the public sphere, and more broadly the digital transformation of the state and of the security field. Since 2013, part of Félix's work focuses on state surveillance and intelligence. For the research project UTIC, he studied the process of legalisation of hitherto illegal surveillance practices by French intelligence, a process which culminated in the adoption of the 2015 Intelligence Act. As an advisor to civil society groups, he has taken part in various advocacy and strategic litigation efforts against surveillance laws before French and European Courts. His more recent work also looks at the role of private companies in surveillance assemblages, either in the context of Internet communications or "Smart City" policing.

23. March 2022

Five things you didn’t know about Germany’s foreign intelligence reform

An account of 5 critical changes that merit careful…

by Kilian ViethResearcher and Project Manager, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung

Kilian Vieth manages Stiftung Neue Verantwortung’s work on digital rights, surveillance, and democracy. He is the project manager for the European Intelligence Oversight Network (EION), which provides European intelligence oversight officials and other experts a space for regular and structured exchange. As a researcher in the GUARDINT project, Kilian studies the potentials and limits of overseeing surveillance and works on the development of an intelligence oversight index and a surveillance law database. His research focusses on the democratic control of intelligence and reform approaches for rights-based and more efficient intelligence and surveillance policy in Germany and Europe. Beyond that, his research interests include digital human rights and critical security studies. He was invited to testify before the parliament of Hesse on regional intelligence legislation. Kilian previously worked on different research projects at the Center for Internet and Human Rights (CIHR) at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, where he is still a Fellow. He has also worked as a consultant and project manager in political campaigning at a communications consultancy in Berlin. He holds a dual master’s degree in Political Science and European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris (France) and Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) and a bachelor’s degree in Public Management and Governance from Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen (Germany).

25. February 2022

Privacy risks of (automated) Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)

The privacy interference in the current practice of…

by Jan-Jaap OerlemansEndowed professor in Intelligence and Law at Utrecht University

Prof. dr. J.J. Oerlemans is an endowed professor in Intelligence and Law at Utrecht University. The chair is made available by the Dutch Review Committee on Intelligence and Security Services (CTIVD), where he also works a senior researcher.

20. July 2021

Update on the Dutch “Dragnet-Act”: One step forward, two steps back?

A second Amendment Proposal prepared by the government is…

by Lotte HouwingPolicy Advisor & Researcher, Bits of Freedom

Lotte Houwing works as a researcher and policy advisor at Bits of Freedom, a Dutch NGO for internet freedoms. There she leads the government surveillance programme where she focuses on policy regulating the capabilities of the secret services with a strong focus on protections of the rights of privacy and freedom of communication. In this capacity she filed a successful complaint procedure against the unlawful detention of bulk datasets by the Dutch intelligence agencies. She has a special interest in the analysis of power in relationships between government institutions and people. She has a background in philosophy and graduated cum laude from her research master in law on the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 at the University of Groningen. When she finds time she publishes on the use of technlogy by the police. But mostly she will be found in her garden.