News that Lord Carter will quit government in July raises serious questions about the future of the Digital Britain proposals, which are due to be released next Tuesday.
Minimum - if minimal - standards for broadband; hopefully, additional thinking about privacy online; and the controversial and much disliked Digital Rights Agency are all expected in the [...]

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Stand back from the media frenzy concentrating on Labour’s woes for a moment, and ask yourself what these elections mean for digital rights.
Several parties that broadly supported digital rights concerns did well in this election, including, in the UK, UKIP and the Greens. The Liberal Democrats also had a fair showing.
Across Europe, the Green Party [...]

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ORG is non-partisan, and the quality and chances of your candidates vary from region to region, so we are not recommending any party over another. Hopefully, the candidates’ pledges on key issues and their track records will help you decide who it’s best to vote for.
What is clear is that Labour have unfortunately refused to [...]

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Update: We have now had a reply for all Conservative candidates.
The Open Rights Group is publicising the positions of MEPs on several key digital rights issues that Europe will be legislating on. These include copyright, data retention, personal data and the open internet.
Around half of the candidates from the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP / Plaid [...]

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The government has announced a review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
It may be a coincidence that this review has been announced days after Commissioner Reding said she intends to prosecute the UK for the inadequacies of this act.
But we fully expect the government to indicate their intention to address her concerns in [...]

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Today we launched a campaign site, portraying the seemingly unregulated amassing of personal data by the state.
Called Statebook, it is a spoof government site, listing all the information government holds an an individual citizen, based on FIPR and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust’s Database State report.
The site also shows what what new information the [...]

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Update: the event video is now available in .mov and .ogg format.
With the rise of the database state and firms profiting from user-profiling, it’s vital to resist surveillance and ensure the integrity of your digital personality. From technologies like PGP and Tor to the arguments that will convince people - friends and family as well [...]

Read the rest of "Event - Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye"

Update: Jack Straw last night scrapped clause 152. We would like to thank all our members who wrote to their MPs on this issue.
Information sharing provisions in the draft Coroners and Justice Bill include some of the most wide-ranging and potentially intrusive proposals ever laid before Parliament. In particular, clause 152 is a profound threat [...]

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The Internet Advertising Bureau, a digital marketing trade body, have launched Good Practice Principles for companies that collect and use data for online behavioural advertising purposes, which contain a number of clear problems:

The guidelines presume that:
“More relevant advertising is beneficial for both users and businesses: users discover more of what interests them and businesses find [...]

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In an open letter sent today to David Lammy, UK Minister for Innovation, some of the country’s most eminent economists and intellectual property scholars, have hit out at government proposals to consider changing policy on term extension. The letter, which has also been sent to the Cabinet Office, the Treasury and the Culture Minister, voices [...]

Read the rest of "Leading Academics Hit Out as Government Abandons Evidence-Based Policy on Copyright."