The MoD has said it cannot say whether it has had any spreadsheet-based data breaches following the catastrophic Afghan citizen one, because it would take >237 hours to find out. On my personal blog informationrightsandwrongs.com/2025/11/07/m...

In January 2025 Djibouti in the Horn of Africa became the 174th country to enact a data privacy law: the Digital Code / Code Numerique covers data privacy as well as other e-commerce & cybersecurity topics www.journalofficiel.dj/texte-juridi... Thanks Dave Banisar @dbanisar.bsky.social

An important PSA for those of you in old Londinium and surrounds. 🤔

A halloween cartoon for @newscientist.com

Lovely obit for Judith Vidal-Hall, former Index on Censorship editor. An absolute force of nature who pioneered the platforming of global voices and always remembered journalism was supposed to be fun and deadly serious at the same time www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/10/exce...

“In order to protect fundamental rights, maintain legal certainty, and continue to ensure a high level of protection, any reform should be evidence-based, targeted, transparent, and further the EU’s values” (Christopher Kuner in this new FPF guest post) #GDPR #Draghi fpf.org/blog/the-dra...

Who knew? How Starmer kept his digital ID plan secret for months www.computerweekly.com/blog/Compute... Keir Starmer tweets on digital ID as Caerphilly Labour loss met with silence www.thenational.scot/news/2556856... ("sporty timelines"?)

Privacy groups criticise appointment of former Meta lobbyist to data protection watchdog

Has anybody talked about the EU aiming to weaken basically all data protection and enviromental regulations yet? #eu #europe #privacy #climate edri.org/our-work/con...

What’s the ROI on telling the truth in Big Tech/AI? Professor @katekenny.bsky.social of @uniofgalway.bsky.social spent 15 years running the numbers—and the moral math doesn’t look great... But she’s got ideas for changing it. 🔦 Full Q&A in our Substack (link below).

California's new AI law SB 53 expands protections for tech whistleblowers but makes it so difficult to file a successful claim that many valid cases will likely be dismissed, writes Sophie Luskin.

A piece of warning at this event about future of #democrcacy & #freespeech in age of AI: We have to stop talking about #AI as if it were destiny. In hands of unaccountable billionaires, it will be perfect dictatorship. Invisible, frictionless, personalised. And you may never know you are in it!

OPEN LETTER: #EU must safeguard the independence of data protection authorities Read more: edri.org/our-work/ope... w @aiforensics.org @alliance4europe.bsky.social @article19europe.bsky.social @bitsoffreedom.bsky.social @hateaid.org @openmarkets.bsky.social @lobbycontrol.bsky.social and many more

Excellent Guardian piece on Aadhar, India's digital ID system, that captures the dilemma extremely well. Digital-by-default methods create huge convenience for some, double-down on social exclusion for others, and it is easy for their scope to rapidly expand www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

“Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable as of 10 October.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Germany's justice ministry held firm and killed EU chat control (for now): "Chat control without cause must be taboo in a state governed by the rule of law. Private communication must never be under general suspicion." Admirably concise and direct. German in the best possible way.

🚨 BREAKING: Chat Control BLOCKED in EU! 🎉 Germany just refused to back the EU's mass surveillance "Chat Control" regulation after public pressure! This blocks the required majority in the EU Council and derails next week's planned vote. NICE JOB EVERYONE! 💪

New map for International Right to Know Day. 132 UN countries now with FOI law+6 w/ regulation, covering 92% of world population. 2 new cos in last year Senegal and Costa Rica.

This was well played! www.theguardian.com/politics/202... #idcards

This takes FOIA fee bullying to a whole new level

New map for International Right to Know Day. 132 UN countries now with FOI law+6 w/ regulation, covering 92% of world population. 2 new cos in last year Senegal and Costa Rica.

Explosive insights about Carter-Ruck's tactics to shut down scrutiny of OneCoin's $3 billion crypto fraud after our work with @danneidle.bsky.social @tbij.bsky.social @fpcthinktank.bsky.social including attempts to get an FCA warning notice taken down: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

Tell it to the mouse

Big media news! The @theonion.com and @washingtonpost.com editorial boards are officially merged!

A groundbreaking decision from Spain’s Supreme Court on transparency of algorithms and FOI.

Civio pulls back the curtain on public algorithms: Spain’s Supreme Court orders the Government to release BOSCO’s source code vía @civio.es civio.es/novedades/20...

Since it's 10 years since I originally charted the genealogy of the S.127 communications offence, time for an update to take account of the #OnlineSafetyAct. Plus a new section for the Malicious Communications Act 1988. 1/2

📣 Watch this PSA from our board member @johncusack.bsky.social: Democracy is under attack — and paywalls shouldn’t stand in the way of accessing vital public records. News outlets, it’s time to drop the paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. @wired.com did it. @404media.co did it. Now, it’s your turn!

FOIA offices are being decimated across federal agencies, leaving the government unable to fulfill public records requests. Don’t let this blatant attack on transparency fly under the radar. Use our new, easy tool to tell your representatives to safeguard FOIA.

I also joined 30+ EU and US scholars on the DSA in letter debunking Jim Jordan's claims that the Digital Services Act is a censorship law (it's content neutral) and that it censors US speech (it applies only inside the EU) husovec.eu/wp-content/u...

A massive thank you to @jennacorderoy.bsky.social @benworthy.bsky.social @itscrowbot.bsky.social @lynnwyeth.bsky.social, John Edwards & Charlie Falconer (& a great audience) for a terrific and constructive discussion on FOI @instituteforgovernment.org.uk today Watch back bit.ly/IfGFoI2025

EVENT | The Freedom of Information Act at 25: What next for freedom of information? Join us on Weds 3 Sept as we assess the state of FoI on its anniversary and explore, through a series of proposals and an expert panel discussion, how the system can be improved. Register to attend zurl.co/GnHz4

🧵 The loss of local news is linked with increased government secrecy, according to a new study by @brechnerfoi.bsky.social. [via @localnewsini.bsky.social]

This morning, we published a story saying that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen auto-deletes all her text messages on the Signal app, including those with an EU leader, president Emmanuel Macron of France. Here is why this is a massive problem for public accountability. 🧵

Would be nice (and perhaps helpful) to see this happen in UK!

📰 Just dropped on @apnews.com: After Trump’s DOGE action, 300 million people’s Social Security data is at risk, whistleblower says We filed a disclosure with SSA Chief Data Officer Charles Borges detailing how DOGE uploaded Americans' Social Security information to a private cloud account.

Whistleblower allegation from Social Security Admin's Chief Data Officer-- DOGE uploaded personal social sec info to insecure cloud server: www.huffpost.com/entry/doge-m... 1/2

Now also available in audio form, if that's what you prefer: www.mysociety.org/podcast/how-...

So, that civil service speaking ban... What does the No 10 guidance actually say? I decided to use a freedom of information request to find out. Here's the response I got... gavin-freeguard.medium.com/no-10-bans-c...

Federal employees said they worry about the future of FOIA in the U.S., not only for their sake, but for requesters as well. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

Revisiting Right to Information in India: Is the DPDP Act counterproductive to RTI Act? Sanya Darakhshan Kishwar, Sadqua Khatoon & Kritika Vatsa critically examine the overreach of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2024. ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/revisiting-r...

We're #hiring a new Litigation Attorney in Washington, DC to serve as a client liaison, conduct legal research, and work with whistleblowers regarding their protected disclosures, job retention strategies, and legal strategies.

📣 Share this post with your network or apply today: linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

The effectiveness of the European data protection framework depends on two essential pillars:  robust individual rights and the institutional independence of the authority enforcing them. This principle is laid down in Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which req... 👉 [read]

UK Ministers spent £2.4m fighting to keep huge #Afghandatabreach a secret www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home... + NYT ($) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/w... This #FOI response on WDTK has the same figure www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/afgh... #dataprotection #opengov

I filed a comment in this Council of Europe consultation. It's in my best European regulator-ese, which is to say the writing is not punchy. But it gets into a bunch of topics I've been thinking about. 1/ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Freedom of Information Act at 25: What next for freedom of information? Join us and @jennacorderoy.bsky.social, Dr Louise Crow @mysociety.org, Dr Ben Worthy, John Edwards, Lord Charlie Falconer, @lynnwyeth.bsky.social to discuss the FOIA. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/foi-ac...

🗞️ Whistleblowers need journalists. Journalists need whistleblowers. Our free guide illustrates how they can support each other in the collaborative process of truth-telling.