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.

11. June 2021

U.S. and European Surveillance Law Regimes: Time to Adjust the Contrast?

Basic requirements for a more lasting transatlantic data…

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.

7. June 2021

France’s tepid intelligence reform

Draft law to introduce new data analysis capabilities.

by Jacques FollorouJournalist at Le Monde foreign desk and intelligence issues

Jacques Follorou is a French journalist. He graduated in 1991 from the Journalist Training Center (CFJ), in Paris. He started his career in 1993 working freelance for the weekly Le Canard enchaîné. In 1996, he was hired by the daily Le Monde and worked mostly on legal cases, in particular those related to the financing of political parties and corruption. In 1998, he also covered Corsican terrorism and mafia stories. After the 09/11 attacks in the United States in 2001, he extended his investigative work to the financing of terrorism and more broadly to financial investigations. In 2008, he joined the international desk where he is in charge of Afghanistan and Pakistan, terrorism and intelligence issues. In 2013, he started working on the material provided by Edward Snowden thanks to an exclusive contact, in France, to the american activist lawyer Glenn Greenwald to whom the former contractor of the National Security Agency (NSA) entrusted his archives. It was the beginning of a direct dialogue with the American whistleblower and ongoing investigations into the French government's surveillance system. Since then, Jacques Follorou has continued his investigations into the intelligence world by contributing, in particular, to the revelations, in 2018 and 2019, of the interference of Russian espionage in Europe. He dedicates a part his work trying to point out the weaknesses of the French legal framework for intelligence. Jacques Follorou is the author of several books, including, in 2018, "L’Etat secret" (The Secret State, Democracy Undermined, Fayard), which comprises an exclusive interview with Edward Snowden. Jacques Follorou considers security and freedom as not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, freedom and debate contribute to security.

14. May 2021

CJEU rulings v. French intelligence legislation

The Conseil d'État deliberately misinterpreted the EU…

by Arthur Messaud & Noémie LevainLa Quadrature du Net

Arthur Messaud has been working at La Quadrature du Net for four years on issues regarding state and capitalism surveillance, trying to change the law before courts and parliaments. Noémie Levain is a privacy and technology lawyer at the Paris bar and a member of La Quadrature du Net. Within this organisation, she works on strategic litigation and helps promote actions against surveillance.