Following its seasonal break, EDRi is back with a comprehensive look at what dominated the digital rights agenda throughout 2024. The advocacy group's year was marked by significant victories—most notably the defeat of Chat Control—alongside hosting the inaugural Tech and Society Summit. As the new year unfolds, several developments from late 2024 are poised to resurface and demand attention from policymakers and civil society alike.

Among the most pressing concerns is the High Level Group Going Dark, which has advanced what EDRi characterises as an "insecurity by design agenda". This signals that EU institutions may soon face renewed pressure to adopt data retention mandates and encryption circumvention measures, despite their track record of failure. Separately, the European Commission has finally unveiled its long-awaited proposal for digitalising travel documents—a scheme that underwent substantial revision following widespread criticism of its initial iteration, which was first promised for the third quarter of 2023. The updated EU travel app framework maintains a voluntary structure for pre-travel checks, though concerns about its privacy implications persist.

Across the Atlantic, Meta and X have implemented content moderation changes that align with the incoming US administration's priorities. These shifts have had troubling consequences: they have strengthened the reach of far-right extremist voices while leaving marginalised and minoritised communities increasingly vulnerable to harassment and hate speech.

Detox your digital data

The start of a new year offers an ideal moment to rid your device of superfluous applications and strengthen your personal privacy protections. The Data Detox Kit provides actionable guidance to prevent sensitive information from becoming the next casualty of a commercial data breach, allowing you to reclaim authority over what your smartphone collects and retains. The process takes just 5–10 minutes.

Six years of the GDPR: priced out of privacy?

Corporations including Meta have increasingly adopted "pay or consent" arrangements that circumvent fundamental data protection rights and contradict the foundational principles embedded in the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Access Now, an EDRi member organisation, has documented how such models inflict harm on individuals and their human rights, and has called on the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to intervene. The analysis is available as a PDF document.

38th Chaos Communication Congress (38c3)

December brought together hackers, digital activists and technologists in Hamburg for Europe's premier annual gathering of the hacker community. The conference featured several high-impact presentations: researchers unveiled findings on a massive breach of location data harvested from connected vehicles, security experts exposed vulnerabilities in Germany's electronic patient file (ePA), and speakers shared lessons on submarine construction mishaps. Recordings of the sessions are now available for viewing.

Fully Automated! TTRPG

For those seeking relief from relentless dystopian narratives, there is an alternative: Andy Gross and collaborators have created "Fully Automated!", an open source solarpunk tabletop role-playing game that envisions a more equitable and sustainable tomorrow. Rather than retreating into the familiar cyberpunk tropes that increasingly mirror present-day reality, the game invites players to imagine futures shaped by abundance, renewable energy and collective flourishing. Gross discusses the project's origins and vision in a recent podcast episode.

Source: EDRi (European Digital Rights)