About ORG

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(Redirected from Aims)

The Open Rights Group (ORG) is a fast-growing NGO focused on raising awareness of issues such as privacy, identity, data protection, access to knowledge and copyright reform. Founded in 2005 by a pledge from 1000 members, ORG is funded by small grants and donations from supporters.

Contents

[edit] Aims

The main aims of the Open Rights Group are:

  • to raise awareness of digital rights abuses;
  • to provide a media clearing-house, connecting journalists with experts and activists;
  • to preserve and extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world;
  • to collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations;
  • to nurture a community of campaigning volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical and legal experts.

We aim to improve both understanding and policy in digital rights matters that affect both businesses and the public.

[edit] Context

There are a wide number of digital rights issues in the UK, ranging from privacy concerns brought up by biometric passports and vehicle tracking systems to free speech issues surrounding overly restrictive copyright law to the threat to our right to private life and correspondence from proposed data retention legislation.

We have never needed an organisation like the Open Rights Group more than we do now. The implications of the digitisation of information and the ease with which such data can be now moved about are vast, and where physical restraints - such as having only paper copies of medical records - once helped secure our privacy, now it is only through unwavering vigilance that we will be able to prevent the abuse of our digital rights.

We have had overwhelming support since we announced the Pledge, which indicates that the Open Rights Group is an idea whose time has come. Many people in the UK are fed up of the way that our civil and human rights are being run roughshod over by big business and the government, and they are keen not just to donate money, but also to take part in grassroots campaigns.

[edit] Activities

Our activities include organising campaigns, lobbying government, and helping journalists find experts and alternative voices for stories.

At the moment the media rely very heavily on press releases from industry and government which results in biased or malformed reporting on digital rights issues. We hope to redress the balance by helping journalists more fully understand the issues and connect with the right experts who can explain alternative positions. We will be working alongside organisations such as link No2ID and the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), who are already making good progress in the digital rights arena, to raise awareness of these very important issues in the media.

We will also be organising volunteer-led campaigns and creating a strong grassroots community, including activists, technical experts and lawyers, who can exchange expertise and provide support to the community at large.

We will initially be concentrating our efforts on Home Secretary Charles Clarke’s proposed draft EU framework on data retention for ISPs and telecommunications companies. We believe that the proposal is not only both unnecessary and unworkable, but that it may also contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

See also:

[edit] Funding

We are using pledgebank.com/rights to provide a way for members to pledge their cash to the organisation, and once that matures - by reaching 1000 signatories - we will be able to properly ‘launch’ the Open Rights Group. However, the group is already ‘in beta’, if you like - we are already planning our first campaign and collaborating with other organisations on the issues we will be addressing.

[edit] Get Involved

[edit] Related Pages

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