We asked all candidates in the General Election to protect digital rights in the new Parliament.

Protect Digital Rights

After a sustained period of attacks on our rights to privacy and freedom of expression, we called on all candidates and political parties in the 2024 General Election to protect digital rights. Why? Because these rights underpin our freedoms as the use of AI and data profiling expands into more areas of life.

From URL to IRL, digital rights keep us safe from intrusion by Government and Big-Tech surveillance, as well as threats posed by bad actors across the world.

To produce our six manifesto pledges, we consulted with over 2,000 members and our advisory panel of experts on digital rights issues.

We processed all the suggestions and created a short list of ideas to improve digital rights in the UK.

Six Manifesto Pledges

ONE
Protect our right to send private messages.

Everyone – including children and young people – should have the right to use end-to-end encryption to ensure that our communications are safe, secure and private. The next government should protect not undermine encryption.

TWO
Provide migrants with digital sanctuary.

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers need the safe data and privacy rights as everyone else so that they can keep their digital identity and information safe. The next government should commit to ending the digital hostile environment.

THREE
Ban the use of pre-crime AI by the police.

Predictive policing systems that use artificial intelligence (AI) to ‘predict’ criminal behaviour undermine our right to be presumed innocent and exacerbate discrimination and inequality in our criminal justice system. The next government should ban dangerous uses of AI in policing.

FOUR
Defend our right to freedom of expression online.

Freedom of expression online is being undermined by age verification, content takedowns, social media censorship and unfair copyright claims. The next government should commit to protecting our right to freedom of expression online.

FIVE
Strengthen our data protection rights.

We need strong data protection laws to make sure that governments and companies do not use our data to track, surveil and profit from us. The next government should strengthen our data protection rights and make sure that the data protection watchdog is fit for purpose.

SIX
End intrusive tracking by online advertisers.

Advertising companies track our internet use to build detailed profiles so they can target us with adverts. The next government should restrict intrusive tracking by data brokers and online advertisers.