Open Rights Group at RightsCon

ORG participated in RightsCon, an international conference organised by Access that saw 700 participants convening in San Francisco to talk about censorship, surveillance and digital rights in general. Many workshops focused on the activities of less democratic countries, such as the use of targeted malware against activists by the Vietnamese government. But quite a few of the panels also discussed the pervasive surveillance by Western nations revealed by Edward Snowden.

I presented our successful crowdfunding efforts with PrivacynotPrism.org.uk in a panel with Indiegogo among others. I also held several meetings and workshops with groups campaigning against mass surveillance in the US, Latin America and Asia.

The day after RightsCon, I participated in a satellite event, the Responsible Data Forum. The Forum is an effort to develop useful tools and strategies for dealing with the ethical, security and privacy challenges facing data-driven advocacy. ORG’s contribution centred on the challenges around open data and privacy.