Blog
Digital Privacy
13 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
BT answers our questions about parental controls
Today BT launched their new Parental Controls service, the latest ISP to roll out network level filters following the Government’s push this summer.
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12 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Data Retention Directive breaches fundamental rights, says Advocate General
The Court of Justice of the European Union is considering whether the European law about collecting and storing communications data (information about our communications) is compatible with the European Chater of Fundamental Rights.
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Digital Privacy
11 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Important opinion about data retention due tomorrow
Update: The opinion has now been published, with the Advocate General arguing that the Directive breaches the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
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06 Dec 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
A milestone for Open Rights Group: 2000 supporters
We are really proud of what we’ve achieved in 2013.
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04 Dec 2013 By Jim Killock
Lord Younger promises right to parody
Lord Younger’s letter to ORG is here in reply to our letter.
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02 Dec 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Brighton Crypto Party
Lego Panopticon – Image CC-BY-SA @limbicfish
The event was jointly organised with the Lighthouse, Brighton’s leading digital culture agency.
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28 Nov 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Government touts backroom deals to block extremist websites
Rumblings about a forthcoming announcement to block “extremism” and “terrorist” content began this summer.
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26 Nov 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Necessary and Proportionate: Support the 13 International Principles
Their national intelligence and investigative agencies capture our phone calls, track our location, peer into our address books, and read our emails.
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25 Nov 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Open government groups demand curbs on mass surveillance
The current wave of open government programmes puts a heavy emphasis on the use of digital technologies – websites and smartphones – to deliver on transparency and accountability.
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20 Nov 2013 By Jim Killock
Dear government, copyright reform – is it happening?
The recommendations it put forward, for instance for user rights to format shifting (ie, copy CDs to your iPod legally), archives, education and parody are modest but necessary.
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18 Nov 2013 By Jim Killock
Child abuse image policies risk looking like cynical manipulation
The government have promoted this as a victory, commanding today’s headlines.
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Digital Privacy
15 Nov 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Sky’s reply to ORG on default internet filters
Sky are the first Internet Service Provider to send us answers to all of our questions about their default filtering.
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Digital Privacy
09 Nov 2013 By Jim Killock
Now talking is treachery
The security services in Parliament claimed that the Guardian’s stories have led directly to discussions among terrorists to improve their information security.
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07 Nov 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Intelligence & Security Committee fails to convince
In the Westminster Hall debate (see ORG’s summary of the debate in a previous blog) on oversight of surveillance last week Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, invited people to judge the Committee’s effectiveness on the basis of the work they do in the coming months:
“Given our willingness to have our first public hearing with the intelligence chiefs next week in front of the cameras, plus other public sessions, as well as the new powers we are already exercising, I ask right hon.
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07 Nov 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
Donate to stop surveillance
ORG has launched a new campaign to fund next year’s fight against Internet surveillance.
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06 Nov 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
Friend Sign-up Scheme Tips
The surveillance debate is at a critical moment and you can help.
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01 Nov 2013 By Alexandra Stefanou
Summary of Westminster Hall surveillance debate
ORG Advisory Council members MPs Tom Watson and Julian Huppert as well as Conservative MP Dominic Raab called for a discussion on ‘oversight of intelligence and security services’, which took place in Westminster Hall.
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25 Oct 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Ask your MP to join the surveillance debate
The MPs Tom Watson, Julian Huppert and Dominic Raab have secured a ‘Westminster Hall’ debate in Parliament next Thursday, on ‘oversight of intelligence and security services.
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26 Sep 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Culture Committee copyright report one-sided and simplistic
Today the Culture, Media and Sport Committee published a report called ‘Supporting the creative economy.
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20 Sep 2013 By Jim Killock
Say no to the Nomitax!
Nominet were told to stop creating new second level domains (like.
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Digital Privacy
06 Sep 2013 By Jim Killock
The security services are stripping us of basic Internet security
Their reports of NSA and GCHQ attacks on fundamental Internet security really matter.
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05 Sep 2013 By Jim Killock
Nudge censorship: questions for ISPs and government
A few weeks earlier, she wrote to some of these companies to shake them down, asking what money they could promise for an education campaign that nobody had specified, discussed or designed.
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03 Sep 2013 By Jim Killock
Music industry try to revive the Digital Economy Act
According to the Drum, music industry group the BPI will sit down with him at a breakfast meeting on 12 September.
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15 Aug 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Open Data Update
Postcodes licensing
Hundreds of ORG supporters joined many others, including Tim Berners-Lee, in asking minister Michael Fallon not to privatise the Postcode database.
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14 Aug 2013 By Lee Maguire
Virgin and Sky blindly blocking innocent sites
As reported by PC Pro, the systems implemented by both Virgin and Sky to stop access to websites blocked by the courts appear to be blocking innocent third-party sites with apparently little or no human oversight.
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09 Aug 2013 By Lee Maguire
Website blocking measures lead to inadvertent censorship
TorrentFreak reports today that Sky is currently blocking access to their site.
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09 Aug 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Tackling ‘thorny issues’ of open government at the OGP London summit
The Open Government Partnership summit in London is gaining momentum, as evidenced by the growing engagement from civil society organisations.
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Digital Privacy
01 Aug 2013 By Jim Killock
Diane Abbott responds on web forum blocking
On a cycling forum, members who are rightly worried that their forum may be blocked by default filters, Skydancer posted a response he was given by Diane Abbott:
I do not believe that the arrangements to protect children from hard core porn online will affect a forum to discuss cycling!
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Digital Privacy
31 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
Government wants default blocking to hit small ISPs
Announced without fanfare, this is the result of several years work on a Communications Bill, now parked, it seems.
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31 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
Twitter abuse debate moves on
The police reacted swiftly, to try to relinquish responsibility, for instance:
Andy Trotter, who leads on social media for Britain’s police forces, told the Guardian he feared that “a whole new tranche” of web-based hate crimes could “cause great difficulty for a hard-pressed police service” trying to deal with what could amount to thousands of allegations.
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30 Jul 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
A quick guide to Cameron’s default Internet filters
David Cameron wants all British Internet users to make an “unavoidable choice” on whether to switch on default filtering.
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29 Jul 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Take action: Call out Cameron on online censorship
David Cameron wants your ISP to push you into switching on web filters.
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29 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
Twitter abuse: let’s debate what the police are doing
Rape threats are vile.
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Digital Privacy
27 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
Who exactly is responsible for ‘nudge censorship’?
In essence, DCMS’s Maria Miller, Claire Perry and David Cameron’s staff have hijacked agreed cabinet policy, pushed for something very different and persuaded ISPs that they should implement significantly worse policies than originally envisaged.
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25 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
Sleepwalking into censorship
The essential detail is that they will assume you want filters enabled across a wide range of content, and unless you un-tick the option, network filters will be enabled.
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Digital Privacy
23 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
ISPs need to explain their filtering systems
We are asking ISPs to explain how their systems will work, and to what extent David Cameron has represented or misrepresented their intentions.
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Digital Privacy
22 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
David Cameron is issuing bad advice to parents
Last week, we published a list of questions about the impacts of filtering technologies, on privacy, Internet applications and user awareness of the technology.
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21 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
Cameron demands action on child abuse images
Every right minded person wants to get rid of child abuse images, and stop people from accessing them.
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19 Jul 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Questions ISPs must answer about Internet filtering
Over the past few weeks the Government has held meetings with Internet companies about child protection online.
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Digital Privacy
19 Jul 2013 By Jim Killock
ORG asks court for web blocking documents
A few weeks ago, ORG published the website 451unavailable.
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17 Jul 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Mobile Privacy: Parliament debates data protection and the mobile industry
On Monday night, Parliament debated the use of personal data by mobile operators.
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05 Jul 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Mobile Privacy: ‘You can’t see the contract until after we’ve done a credit check’
On Wednesday afternoon, I left the ORG office and went to the mobile operators’ shops on the Strand in central London.
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03 Jul 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
ORG’s next challenge
Here in the ORG office, they’ve managed to both shock us and confirm our worst suspicions.
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01 Jul 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Open Rights Group at Latin American open data events
ORG has been working on the issues and conflicts around privacy and open data for some time.
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28 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
PRISM Parliamentary event packed out
The executive claims that all is well with secret surveillance, and that there is nothing to worry about, as everything that takes place is under a strict legal framework.
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26 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
Prophetic analysis warned about US-based cloud
The Commission’s position on data exports relates to their cloud strategy.
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24 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
Questions for the UK government
Not everything set out by these leaks is new or unknown, but what is new is the confirmation of the existence of the programmes, and the pressure on governments to come clean and explain what they have done.
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21 Jun 2013 By Javier Ruiz
EE Dragging its Feet on Mobile Data Transparency
EE has already met with ORG to explain how their data services work, how they aggregate data and what general legal framework they operate.
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Digital Privacy
17 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
Jargon File blocked by O2, Youtube by Orange
Report your blocks here.
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14 Jun 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Open Data: Government Responds to Shakespeare’s Review
A National Data Strategy?
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14 Jun 2013 By Lee Maguire
Has the NSA “poisoned the well” for responsible disclosure?
Revelations about the PRISM project involve US tech companies have been compelled to provide special assistance to US intelligence agencies.
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14 Jun 2013 By Peter Bradwell
EU Commission caved to US demands to drop anti-PRISM privacy clause
Reports this week revealed that the US successfully pressed the European Commission to drop sections of the Data Protection Regulation that would, as the Financial Times explains, “have nullified any US request for technology and telecoms companies to hand over data on EU citizens.
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13 Jun 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Baroness Ludford’s proposals take away your privacy choices
Yesterday we wrote about Baroness Ludford’s amendment to the Data Protection Regulation (amendment number 1210) that would mean your data could be transferred to a third country or international organisation without you being told.
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Digital Privacy
13 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
Website filtering problems are a ‘load of cock’
The motion laid down by Labour says:
That this House deplores the growth in child abuse images online; deeply regrets that up to one and a half million people have seen such images; notes with alarm the lack of resources available to the police to tackle this problem; further notes the correlation between viewing such images and further child abuse; notes with concern the Government’s failure to implement the recommendations of the Bailey Review and the Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection on ensuring children’s safe access to the internet; and calls on the Government to set a timetable for the introduction of safe search as a default, effective age verification and splash page warnings and to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure these changes are speedily implemented.
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12 Jun 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
PRISM, Free speech and creativity: Looking back on ORGCon2013
Open Rights Group’s third national conference took place last weekend at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, with a fantastic set of speakers and hundreds of attendees.
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12 Jun 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Baroness Ludford amendment – opening the door to FISAAA?
Baroness Ludford, by ALDE, cc-by-nc-sa
The UK Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Ludford has recently published an article in LibDem Voice accusing the Open Rights Group of “overreacting” to a letter she had written to the Financial Times.
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12 Jun 2013 By Rachel Wemyss
Caspar Bowden – How to wiretap the Cloud (without almost anybody noticing)
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10 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
What William Hague and Theresa May need to tell us
It seems obvious that our security services will have received information from these trawling and retention systems, and equally it would be a little surprising if they had broken international law.
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07 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
Advisory Council nominations
Are you an expert in digital issues, civil liberties or campaigning?
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Digital Privacy
07 Jun 2013 By Peter Bradwell
PRISM: The FISAAA smoking gun
UPDATED: see presentation by Caspar Bowden below.
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07 Jun 2013 By Jim Killock
PRISM – Diffracting non-US Citizens’ basic privacy since 2007?
Top secret slides from the US National Security Agency say that email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats (eg.
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06 Jun 2013 By Javier Ruiz
EE debate mobile weblogs and privacy
The companies didn’t add anything new to what we had learnt in previous conversations.
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06 Jun 2013 By Peter Bradwell
DCMS call summit on dealing with extreme or illegal content online
This morning comes news that Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has summoned internet companies to a summit on how they deal with illegal and extreme content online.
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05 Jun 2013 By Lee Maguire
Tickets for the final IT Crowd recording
Update (7th June): The bidding was closed at 10am, and we’ve gotten back in touch with the highest bidder.
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05 Jun 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
What are Mobile Providers Doing with Customer Data? – The results so far
Since we set up the tool, hundreds of you have used it to contact your mobile provider.
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04 Jun 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Mobile data for sale: meeting with EE sheds new light
This is in the lead up to our public panel discussion on Wednesday 5 June.
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Digital Privacy
31 May 2013 By Peter Bradwell
What mobile internet filtering tells us about porn blocks
There’s been plenty of coverage today of calls to do more to block access to pornography, and specifically pornography on the Internet.
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31 May 2013 By Jim Killock
Sacrificing freedom on the altar of political fears
These are extraordinarily big leaps, with little thought to the consequences.
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30 May 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
What’s Happening at ORGCon2013: Digital Arms Trade Debate
ORGCon2013 is a great place to find about new threats to our online rights – and ways to combat them.
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30 May 2013 By Jim Killock
Snoopers’ Charter debate at ORGCon
Even MI5 agents have declared that the Snooper’s Charter could not have prevented Woolwich, and that calls for its revival are a “cheap argument”.
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28 May 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Snoopers’ Charter – How You Can Stop it Coming Back…Again
It’s only been one month since Nick Clegg declared the Snoopers’ Charter dead but already Home Secretaries past and present are calling for the Snoopers’ Charter to be brought back in response to appalling tragedy in Woolwich.
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28 May 2013 By Claudia Mateus
Exciting speakers at ORGCon2013!
Visit the ORGCon2013 website!
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23 May 2013 By Jim Killock
Capitalising on tragedy
Lord Carlile said on Newsnight:
We have to learn proportionate lessons from what has occurred.
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21 May 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
A Quick Look at some Mobile Providers’ Customer Data Policies
The article in the Sunday Times described a deal for the sale of customer data between mobile operator EE and polling organisation Ipsos MORI, who in turn, the Sunday Times claimed, tried to sell the data to the Met Police.
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17 May 2013 By Ryan Jendoubi
Taking the privacy message to MEPs
I’m Ryan Jendoubi — programmer, aspiring lawyer, and member of ORG’s Supporter Council.
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17 May 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Shakespeare: on the mark for open data, misses on privacy and transparency
We will not cover every recommendation.
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14 May 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Naked Citizens: Protect your Privacy!
After a little sit down and maybe once everyone had covered themselves up a bit, you’d probably want to find out just why all these people had turned up at your door.
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13 May 2013 By Jim Killock
EE and sale of user data: does Anonymisation work?
They said in response that “most” of the data is large, aggregated datasets, of around 50 users.
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13 May 2013 By Jim Killock
EE selling your data to pollsters and police
The details that have emerged since imply that access to the data is partially controlled by use of “anonymisation” – a controversial practice which many people believe to be highly circumventable in practice.
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10 May 2013 By Jim Killock
BT Sport Channel: what does it mean for the Internet?
The changes are more worrying because the convergance of content delivery and ISPs is happening at different levels of the industry, not just at BT.
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09 May 2013 By Jim Killock
Ofcom research into online infringement
We haven’t had time to analyse the report (PDF) in full, but a few things stood out.
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08 May 2013 By Francis Davey
Orphan Works – the new law in the UK
Photographers have been particularly concerned after one site (which I won’t dignify with a link) used the headline “ALL your pics belong to everyone now”.
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08 May 2013 By Jim Killock
Snoopers’ Charter: dead or just sleeping?
What’s left is a promise to find ‘proposals’ (PDF, p74) to ask mobile companies to record user data in a similar way to other ISPs.
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29 Apr 2013 By Jim Killock
Digital Surveillance: how to avoid another Snoopers’ Charter
Following Nick Clegg’s rejection of the Snoopers’ Charter, our new report brings together leading Internet experts, lawyers and campaigners to offer credible, less intrusive alternatives to the Home Office’s Communications Data Bill.
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Digital Privacy
26 Apr 2013 By Claudia Mateus
Digital Surveillance video
The Digital Surveillance report – to be launched at a public event on Monday – gives a history of surveillance policy, looks at the current state of the law, examines why technology poses a problem and offers alternative, more targeted and more accountable approaches.
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25 Apr 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Naked Citizens campaign launch
This afternoon Open Rights Group headed over to Facebook’s offices in Covent Garden, London.
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25 Apr 2013 By Jim Killock
Fatal Blow to the Snoopers’ Charter?
We hope it is an end to the latest tranch of mass surveillance, however we are not going to let anything else slip in in a new form as it is clear the Home Office and the Conservatives still wish to see a watered down version of the Communications Data Bill appear.
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16 Apr 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
ORGConNorth: Watch the event
ORGConNorth was our first local conference, held in Manchester on April 13th.
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15 Apr 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
ORGConNorth: Reporting back from Manchester’s digital rights conference
Around 70 people attended ORGConNorth at the Friends Meeting House on Saturday April 13th, It was a really lively event – the first of many more local conferences we hope.
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08 Apr 2013 By Claudia Mateus
Data Protection Regulation Debate
Part 1
In the first part of the podcast, the discussion focus in two of the most controversial issues around the draft: the definition of personal data and consent.
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27 Mar 2013 By Jim Killock
Lords mistaken in their calls for Ofcom Internet regulation
These are the key paragraphs:
204.
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26 Mar 2013 By Jim Killock
Will bloggers be protected? Maybe – if your blog is ‘small’
Lord McNally, for the government, said:
we do not want to draw in too broad a range of publishers.
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25 Mar 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Privacy groups urge Baroness Ludford to support stronger data rights
We have joined up with Privacy International to send a joint letter to Baroness Sarah Ludford about the Data Protection Regulation, urging her to support a strong law that gives people meaningful control over their personal information.
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23 Mar 2013 By Jim Killock
‘Gaming’ can be avoided: bloggers can be protected from the Crime and Courts Bill
We believe this can be avoided.
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Digital Privacy
21 Mar 2013 By Jim Killock
Meeting Hacked Off
Simon Phipps’ article and comments from Cory Doctorow and Alec Muffett prompted the invite from Evan Harris and Hacked Off.
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19 Mar 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Is the tide turning in the fight for our privacy rights?
This morning the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) in the European Parliament voted on their opinion on the proposed Data Protection Regulation.
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19 Mar 2013 By Simon Phipps
Royal Charter or Star Chamber For Stars?
(Hat tip to Alec Muffett for pointing this out)
Unpacking all the nested definitions in the draft Charter, a person who:
publishes in the United Kingdom or for an audience mainly located in the United Kingdom
news or information about current affairs or
opinion about matters related to the news or current affairs or
gossip about celebrities, other public figures or other persons in the news, on
a website containing news-related material (whether or not related to a newspaper or magazine)
falls within the remit of this Charter as a “relevant publisher”.
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07 Mar 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Snoopers’ Charter: We need a consultation!
Tell the Home Office why you should be consulted about the Communications Data Bill.
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01 Mar 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Another important privacy vote in the European Parliament
Members of the European Parliament are in the process of shaping a new Data Protection Regulation, which was proposed by the European Commission last January.
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