Recent weeks have brought fresh developments across the digital rights landscape, with the EDRi network tracking progress on questions of fairness, funding pressures on data protection authorities, and emerging threats to civil society.
New toolkit guides activists through digital ID complexities
A newly released resource is designed to support digital rights campaigners engaged with digital identification systems. The interactive tool functions as a branching narrative experience, allowing users to select a Persona and then progress through distinct phases—System, Harm, and Mitigation—tailored to their specific context. The resource equips advocates with framing and messaging suited to campaign work, public education, and grassroots mobilisation efforts around digital ID deployment.
Defending civil society against coordinated disinformation
Zagreb-based watchdog Gong has completed research documenting disinformation and defamation targeting civil society organisations during Croatia's 2025 local election cycle. Alongside this analysis, the group has formulated policy recommendations aimed at both Croatian and EU institutions. The proposals seek to strengthen the operating environment for civil society while establishing protections against smear campaigns, false narratives, and targeted attacks on activists and organisations.
German Big Brother Awards mark 25 years of surveillance critique
The 25th edition of Germany's Big Brother Awards ceremony occurred on 10 October, with recordings now accessible in both German and English. The event featured five jury panellists and the youth collective Teckids delivering sharp commentary on surveillance expansion, privacy erosion, coercive technology adoption, and related harms.
EU funding flows to companies behind global spyware operations
Investigative reporting by Greek journalist Vas Panagiotopoulos exposes how European Union and member state governments channel public resources to firms developing invasive surveillance software. Spyware operates by intercepting private communications, monitoring location data, and accessing stored files—all without user awareness. Though vendors frame these tools as instruments for counterterrorism and law enforcement, documented evidence shows deployment against journalists, human rights defenders, and political rivals. The same corporations implicated in supporting authoritarian surveillance regimes are simultaneously receiving European public funding. Panagiotopoulos's podcast episode and written investigation are available through Follow the Money.
Source: EDRi (European Digital Rights)
