European freedom and rights groups are concerned about the deal Neelie Kroes is getting after lobbyists got involved

What is this freedom that we are talking about?

It is the freedom to live our lives to its fullest without harming anybody else and without violating any of our accepted social norms. There are several areas of life where we invoke this freedom. We are primarily concerned with three different areas - Software Freedom, Freedom from Social Evils, Freedom to live our future.

The stories of Echelon, Wikileaks, Snowden and the NSA scandal lead the information society to question the notions of information privacy, transparency, common sense, and the use of personal data for commercial purposes. To be “free”, is it simply the freedom to enjoy without restraint? Freedom of speech? Freedom of opinion or free will? Freedom to use gratis everything we find on the Net?

We interviewed Chris Fernandez, of the Binary Freedom project to find out what they are doing to defend digital freedom.

The European Commission plans to rewrite ICT industry rules to make sure dominant technologies, like devices with always-on connectivity, do not lock consumers into supporting monopolies and hamper innovation, Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for the Digital Agenda, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Freedom walk is a project aimed at spreading the message of 'Freedom in Society', 'Freedom from Environmental Issues', and 'Freedom in Software' and to promote activism around these freedoms.

"Many of us in the Free Software community have a certain level of “activist” within us, pushing those around us towards the ideals that we cherish. Ideals such as freedom. Freedom of communication, freedom of data, freedom of choice. This March 26th is Document Freedom Day, another occasion where we can band together and help promote Open Document Standards..."

Neelie Kroes favours open standards, recognition of industry standards bodies and open source in her role as European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda

"This is a post about freedom. The freedom to keep your data for yourself and the freedom to run free software. You should be able to reclaim and enjoy these freedoms also when using web applications. [...] Let me be clear: web apps are great and I’m in love with them. But I think it’s time to ask for more freedom and more privacy. Here is a three step plan to achieve both these results..."