leidenlawblog

Dossier

Digital Rights & eLaw

The internet has transformed how people communicate, work and organise, and created new legal questions about privacy, freedom of expression, platform accountability and access to information. This dossier covers the legal frameworks that govern online life, from the GDPR to the Digital Services Act and beyond.

Blogs

Erasing personal data in an AI era

Can inaccurate personal data produced by AI be deleted? As the right of erasure evolves in the AI era, legal and technical challenges are growing.

Helena Vrabec • October 02, 2025

Authorship must be demonstrated

A person who claims to be a copyright holder must ‘provide any reasonably available evidence enabling the court to satisfy itself with a sufficient degree of certainty that the applicant is the rightholder’.

Dirk Visser • May 09, 2023

Artificial art, copyright, evidence and disclosure

Art created with the help of AI poses interesting questions regarding copyright and the need for new rules on evidence of human creativity and a possible obligation to disclose the use of AI.

Dirk Visser • March 09, 2023

‘Was/now’ prices: Fake discounts are no longer allowed

From 1 January 2023, the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets will enforce stricter rules on discounting by Dutch companies. What can we expect?

Kimia Heidary • December 13, 2022

E-commerce and consumer data: Is regulation needed?

E-commerce is booming and big data has allowed companies to engage in more personalised online marketing communication with consumers. Can regulatory initiatives keep up?

Kimia Heidary • December 03, 2020

Data security in humanitarian action

If the essence of war is speed, knowledge of sensitive information about the enemy can make the difference. Even if this means cracking and stealing data held by neutral organisations. How does the Red Cross protect its own data?

Francesco Schmidt • December 05, 2019

News from “cookie land”

The use of web cookies has become increasingly diverse, enabling tracking beyond traditional cookie techniques. Social networks and website owners both get a piece of the pie, but how should legal responsibilities be split?

Helena U. Vrabec • August 08, 2019 • 2 comments

The Dutch cookie conundrum

This week, the new Dutch cookie law came into force, leading to confusion and chagrin among website owners. The cookie law is controversial, as it requires website owners to get consent from the user before placing cookies, which can be quite burdensome.

Bart Schermer • June 09, 2012

Wiretapping Internet Communications

The effectiveness of internet wiretaps deteriorated over the last decade, while at the same time the necessity of wiretapping internet communications has increased. This blog post is about the possibilities of wiretapping internet communications.

Jan-Jaap Oerlemans • May 24, 2012