Blog
Mass Surveillance
08 Sep 2023 By James Baker and Jim Killock
Omnishambles over encrypted messages continues
At the eleventh hour of the Online Safety Bill’s passage through Parliament, the Government has found itself claiming to have both conceded that it won’t do anything stupid regarding encrypted messages, and that it may well press ahead with dangerous technologies if it wants to.
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15 Aug 2023 By Sara Alsherif
Fines Hiked For Firms Employing Illegal Migrants
The recent announcement by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick regarding the proposed rules to triple fines for businesses and landlords supposedly supporting illegal migrants has ignited significant concerns, calling for careful reconsideration, as their implications run deep and require immediate attention.
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01 Aug 2023 By Sophia Akram, Abby Burke, Jim Killock
What’s wrong with ULEZ? It’s not what you think
ULEZ – the Ultra Low Emmission Zone – has become a political football.
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Digital Privacy
28 Jul 2023 By Mariano
The CPTPP: trading away your privacy rights
The Government have recently announced the UK accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
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25 Jul 2023 By Sophia Akram
South Wales Police state their case for using facial recognition
On 28 June, the parliamentary session’s final Senedd cross-party group (CPG) on digital rights and democracy, of which Open Rights Group (ORG) acts as secretariat, took place online with over 20 attendees tuning in to hear a follow-up to a previous group session on facial recognition technology.
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20 Jul 2023 By Dr Monica Horten
Disappointment as peers fail to protect privacy on encrypted chats
Watching last night’s debate in the House of Lords was a disappointing experience as peers failed to protect the privacy of the 40 million British people who use private chat service.
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18 Jul 2023 By Sara Alsherif
Migrant Rights Update – July 2023
Read our latest update on issues affecting migrants’ digital rights.
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11 Jul 2023 By Abigail Burke
Smart meter data collection: Government reverses course after ORG raises concerns
Last year, on 1 October 2022 the Government quietly announced that smart meter data would be collected in order to assess the bills reduction scheme following energy price hikes last year.
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19 Jun 2023 By Sara Alsherif
Refugee Week: Compassion needed at the Home Office
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Refugee Week, and the theme is compassion, celebrating the resilience of refugees and asylum seekers.
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16 Jun 2023 By Alexander
Putting Pride In Privacy
Coming out is the definitive queer right of passage.
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15 Jun 2023 By Jim Killock
Impunity pervades post-Johnson Government
Johnson’s lack of candour might look like a personal phenomenon, but it was something which pervaded his government.
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Mass Surveillance
06 Jun 2023 By Jim Killock
Snowden Revelations: Ten Years On
Ten years ago, the first revelations about US mass surveillance were published in the UK and USA.
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26 May 2023 By Jim Killock
Board nominations open
Open Rights Group is electing three Board members for a two year term, to help lead our governance and oversight at a time of major change.
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25 May 2023 By Sophia Akram
George Floyd’s Murder, Three Years On: Insitutional Racism Hardwired in Police Tech
Three years ago today, rumblings of a global reckoning on racial injustice took place that led many people to reconsider their own experiences and roles when it came to anti-Blackness and racial discrimination.
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23 May 2023 By Sara Alsherif
Migrants’ Data Rights Under Attack
If you are a migrant in the UK, asylum seeker, refugee or working on this issue, you must read this carefully.
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18 May 2023 By Sophia Akram
Don’t use Beyonce to normalise live facial recognition
Its deployment is nothing more than our demise from democracy.
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Free expression online
15 May 2023 By Dr Monica Horten
Small Boats and Silent Protest: Prior Restraint in the Online Safety Bill
Under new rules created by the Online Safety Bill, all illegal content must be removed from social media platforms.
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Free expression online
11 May 2023 By Pam Cowburn
Online Safety Bill: A Danger to Democracy
The campaign group, Republic have called for an investigation into the arrest of eight of their members, including Chief Executive Graham Smith, ahead of the organisation’s planned protest of the King’s coronation.
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20 Apr 2023 By Open Rights Group
Introducing Sara Alsherif
Hello everyone,
My name is Sara Alsherif, and I am excited to introduce myself as the new Programme Manager for the Migrant Digital Justice Programme.
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20 Mar 2023 By Sophia Akram
What’s wrong with ‘gang’ surveillance in the UK?
Just over one year ago, ten young Black men were charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to GBH in Greater Manchester.
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08 Mar 2023 By Abigail Burke
International Women’s Day: We must challenge discrimination women face across the digital landscape
This International Women’s Day, ORG is celebrating the critical contributions made by the women on our staff (and all women across the digital rights space) to making technology, and in turn the world, more equitable, diverse, and inclusive.
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07 Mar 2023 By Abigail Burke
The Data Discrimination Bill attacks our data protection rights
Today, ORG sent an urgent open letter to Michelle Donelan MP, the Secretary of State for the new Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.
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15 Feb 2023 By Sophia Akram
UK Facial Recognition – No Consent, No Oversight
On 3 February 2023, the Wales cross-party group on digital rights and democracy – for which Open Rights Group serves as the secretariat – held its fourth session on surveillance and facial recognition technology in the UK.
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14 Feb 2023 By Sophia Akram
Prevent: Shawcross Review fails to address data harms and rights
On 8 February, the long awaited report – the Independent Review of Prevent – conducted by the commissioner for public appointments William Shawcross, was published after much scepticism, delay and controversy, even from within the cabinet.
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12 Jan 2023 By Sophia Akram
Views Around the Table on the Online Safety Bill
On 27 September 2022, Open Rights Group (ORG) held a roundtable with civil society – from women’s rights advocacy groups to organisations representing over-surveilled communities – to discuss some of the most concerning aspects of the Online Safety Bill, currently at the report stage in the House of Commons.
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11 Jan 2023 By Dr Monica Horten
State enforcement of big tech terms
At the end of 2022, a widely publicised change to the Online Safety Bill took out the so-called “legal but harmful” clauses for adults.
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04 Jan 2023 By Sophia Akram
Data Sharing and Migrant Women Reporting Abuse
On 9 December 2022, The Wales Cross Party Group on Digital Rights and Democracy, of which Open Rights Group is the secretariat, held its second session, this time held on data sharing and migrant women reporting domestic abuse.
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28 Dec 2022 By James Baker
The ORG Review of 2022
2022 has been a tumultuous year for Digital Rights in the UK.
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Digital Privacy
14 Dec 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
The UK Data Protection Reforms from an EU perspective
Political turmoil in the UK has slowed down the Government plans to reform data protection: since the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill was tabled in Parliament this June, two Prime Ministers were quickly ousted and, six months after the Bill was published, a parliamentary debate around the Bill has yet to be scheduled.
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Mass Surveillance
12 Dec 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
Online Safety Bill: Triple shield or triple surveillance?
Update on the Parliamentary amendments
The Online Safety Bill is back in Parliament.
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Mass Surveillance
09 Dec 2022 By James Baker
Continuing the campaign against the Online Safety Bill
This week the Online Safety Bill came back to Parliament.
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28 Nov 2022 By Abigail Burke
ICO fails to protect World Cup fans
Last week, several news outlets reported that Qatar’s World Cup apps pose serious privacy and security risks.
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Mass Surveillance
24 Nov 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
Global encryption coalition warns of Online Safety Bill dangers
70 organizations, cyber security experts, and elected officials sign open letter expressing dangers of Online Safety Bill
On 24 November, seventy civil society organizations, companies, elected officials, and cybersecurity experts, including Global Encryption Coalition members, published an open letter to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak highlighting their concerns with the threat that the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Bill poses to end-to-end encryption.
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17 Nov 2022 By Jim Killock
Twitter Crisis – What we need to do
The Twitter crisis threatens people in many diverse ways.
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03 Nov 2022 By Sophia Akram
Digital Trade and the EU – Post Brexit
On Friday, 21 October, the Wales Cross Party Group on Digital Rights, of which Open Rights Group (ORG) is the secretariat, held an online event discussing the EU and digital trade post-Brexit and in the wake of new legislation.
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02 Nov 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
UK data reforms: ORG meeting with members of EU Parliament
The UK data reform is gaining international attention: Members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament are visiting London from 2-4 November to meet with UK Government representatives, civil society and other interest groups.
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01 Nov 2022 By Jim Killock
Elon Musk exposes the truth
Nobody is happy with the private public square
Nobody is happy at Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
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28 Oct 2022 By Sahdya Darr
EDRi’s first Colour of Surveillance Europe Conference
In September, European Digital Rights (EDRi) held the first Colour of Surveillance Europe Conference in Amsterdam and it was such a privilege for me to be selected to attend both days of the conference.
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25 Oct 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
Net neutrality on the chopping block
Government Bill grants powers to axe Internet laws
Net neutrality and the Open Internet are under threat from a proposed new law that is now before Parliament.
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19 Oct 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
The Govt want to read your meter readings, and your mail could be next
The UK Government have announced that they will require energy suppliers to hand over meter readings of millions of UK residents to conduct “financial checks […] for assurance and the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences including fraud”, as well as to “inform future Government policy”.
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18 Oct 2022 By Abigail Burke
DATA PROTECTION U-TURN NEEDED
Government’s proposed changes to UK GDPR should be next to go
New chancellor Jeremy Hunt has begun to scrap part of the disastrous economic measures proposed in the mini-Budget in response to backlash from the markets, businesses and consumers.
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11 Oct 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
Molly Russell inquest and the online platforms debate
We would like to extend our sympathies to the family of Molly Russell and we trust they will be allowed the space to come to terms in private with the outcome of the inquest on their daughter’s death.
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07 Oct 2022 By Sophia Akram
Young people are being criminalised for content
It’s a modern-day reality that pretty much anyone can go online today and write what they want with some form of audience available to them – whether that’s Facebook friends, Twitter followers or readers of a personal blog.
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04 Oct 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
UK Government failing on AI regulation
The UK Government have published their vision for “Establishing a pro-innovation approach to regulating AI”.
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29 Sep 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
Will the upload filter ban images of protest?
Recently, we saw how police threatened and in a couple of cases, arrested, anti-monarchy protesters, following the death of the late queen Elizabeth II.
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20 Sep 2022 By Al
Board Nominations Open
Open Rights Group is electing three Board members in 2022, to help lead our governance and oversight at a time of major change.
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05 Sep 2022 By Dr Monica Horten and Mariano delli Santi
Can our new Prime Minister be trusted with free speech and privacy?
As Liz Truss flies to Balmoral tomorrow to meet the Queen, who will ask her to form a government, what can we expect for our free speech and privacy rights?
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01 Sep 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
Could debate on immigration be suppressed?
A little bombshell, hidden deep within the gargantuan piece of legislation that is the Online Safety Bill, could have the effect of suppressing public debate around immigration.
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Mass Surveillance
04 Aug 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
The Online Safety Bill puts a spy in your pocket
The deployment of client-side scanning on private messaging systems was trailed in a research paper published by the technical directors of GCHQ and the National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC).
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02 Aug 2022 By Sahdya Darr
Migrant Digital Justice Toolkit
How-to-fight data discrimination – launching a new toolkit for the migrants’ rights sector
The Migrant Digital Justice Programme (MDJP) at ORG is proud to launch our Migrant Digital Justice Toolkit.
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21 Jul 2022 By James Baker
How the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill affects you
Nadine Dorries and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS) have released their Data Protection and Digital Information Bill– Our policy expert Mariano deli Santi has produced his initial analysis ‘Data the Wrong Direction’ of the implications.
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14 Jul 2022 By Dr Monica Horten
MPs must rethink this dire Bill
The government has delayed further debate on the Online Safety Bill until the Autumn.
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07 Jul 2022 By Jim Killock
Board nominations Open
Open Rights Group is electing three Board members in 2022, to help lead our governance and oversight at a time of major change.
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28 Jun 2022 By Sophia Akram
‘Prevent’ and the attack on free speech
A review of the government’s controversial Prevent duty has been a long time coming.
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27 Jun 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
The UK Data Reform Bill and the British Bill of Rights: a tragedy in two acts
The dust hasn’t settled since plans to undermine everyone’s right to data protection were announced, but the Government are at it again.
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22 Jun 2022 By Aislinn Lambert
Make a difference! An invitation to join the Open Rights Group Advisory Council
Do you have deep knowledge of the digital rights space?
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17 Jun 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
Brace yourselves: new UK data laws are coming
The Government have just announced their plans to gut the UK General Data Protection Regulation.
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17 Mar 2022 By Jim Killock
Online Safety made dangerous
From the government press release, and without seeing the text of the Bill, there are already things we can say about the Online Safety Bill.
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15 Mar 2022 By Open Rights Group
Digital Rights and Ukraine
The war in Ukraine is having profound impacts on the digital rights of people in Ukraine, Russia and the UK.
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10 Mar 2022 By Jim Killock
Internet policy is broken
The government’s proposals for the Online Safety Bill are getting worse, rather than better.
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09 Mar 2022 By Sanjana Varghese
Bridging sectors – new grassroots alliances for migrant digital justice
The story so far
Since establishing the Migrant Digital Justice Programme (previously known as the Immigration, Data and Technology Programme) in 2020, ORG has been working at the intersection of the migrants’ rights sector and the digital rights ecosystem.
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25 Feb 2022 By Jim Killock
The Online Safety Bill: punishing victims
The government has today announced two new regressive and unworkable additions to the Online Safety Bill.
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23 Feb 2022 By Sahdya Darr
New name and start for our migration work
Since its inception in 2020, our immigration, data and technology programme has worked to understand the needs and capacities of civil society organisations in the field of migrant’ rights and support them to incorporate digital advocacy in their work.
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03 Feb 2022 By Mariano delli Santi
A day of reckoning for IAB and Adtech
In a damning verdict, the Belgian Data Protection Authority ruled the illegality of IAB cookie consent banners.
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17 Jan 2022 By Sahdya Darr
Government disregards Court’s Immigration Exemption ruling
This week the House of Commons and the House of Lords will consider the Government’s proposed legislation regarding amendments to the immigration exemption.
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22 Dec 2021 By Mike Morel
Our year of action
With Britain still in the throes of Covid-19, 2021 was a truly unique year for the movement to protect our digital rights.
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17 Dec 2021 By Robert Sharp
Joint Committee advice cannot fix flawed Online Safety Bill
On 14 December 2021, the Joint Parliamentary Committee charged with scrutinising the draft Online Safety Bill published its report.
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14 Dec 2021 By Jim Killock
Online Safety Bill will not tackle monopoly abuse
As Parliament makes its recommendations on the Online Safety Bill, trying to fix the problems of accountability it brings, while perhaps adding new complexities, we need to step back and ask whether the Bill will do the job it is setting out to do.
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13 Dec 2021 By Robert Sharp
Online Safety Bill: Sweeping Ministerial Powers
The Joint Parliamentary Committee scrutinising the government’s Draft Online Safety Bill concluded its evidence sessions on 4 November.
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12 Dec 2021 By Robert Sharp
What’s the Harm in the Online Safety Bill?
Throughout the development of the government’s Online Harms policy, a central concern of ORG and other human rights organisations is how any legally mandated content moderation policy could practically be achieved.
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11 Dec 2021 By Open Rights Group
Our Adtech challenge: what we won, what we lost and what we do next
On Friday 26 November 2021, the Upper Tribunal ruled (in Killock and Veale & Ors v Information Commissioner (GI/113/2021 and ors) on our challenge against the ICO’s handling of our complaint concerning illegal data processing in the AdTech sector.
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10 Dec 2021 By Robert Sharp
Online Safety Bill: Kill Switch for Encryption
Of the many worrying provisions contained within the draft Online Safety Bill, perhaps the most consequential is contained within Chapter 4, at clauses 63-69.
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01 Dec 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
ORG response to Data: a new direction
We submitted our response to Government plans to deregulate data protection, also known as “Data: a new direction”.
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11 Nov 2021 By Sahdya Darr
Newsletter: Migration, Data and Digital Rights
Welcome to the November edition of Migration, Data and Digital Rights!
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10 Nov 2021 By Jim Killock and Mariano delli Santi
Lloyd vs Google: UK needs collective redress
In 2012, Google hacked the web browers of million of Apple users to store data on their devices and track their activities online.
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13 Oct 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
New UK data laws are Govt revenge against NHS patients
Health data has become one of the most valued prizes of the surveillance economy, but they aren’t being used to “save lives”.
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01 Oct 2021 By Jim Killock
Lord Frost says: bypass Parliament to rewrite EU rules
Government is considering demanding powers to rewrite any and all ‘retained EU legislation’ while bypassing Parliament.
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29 Sep 2021 By Jim Killock and Mariano delli Santi
Weakening privacy will fuel online harms
Government is asking a big question: how do we regulate the tech industry?
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22 Sep 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
New UK data laws will harm mothers and children
In data: a new direction, the UK Government proposes to reform legitimate interest.
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17 Sep 2021 By Heather Burns
Papers please: nationality checks for the British internet?
Over the course of the debate on how to tackle online harms, we’ve drawn attention to the risks to digital and human rights which can arise when technical solutionism meets poorly drafted legislation.
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15 Sep 2021 By Heather Burns
How the Online Safety Bill lets politicians define free speech
The Joint Pre-Legislative Scrutiny committee has opened its work into the draft Online Safety Bill.
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14 Sep 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
Vandalising your privacy rights
Anything you say and do can and will be used against you.
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10 Sep 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
Why on earth is the Government mucking about with our privacy laws?
Thursday evening, the UK Government published their long-awaited proposal for a new UK data protection regime.
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09 Sep 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
Cookie banners, explained
Cookie banners are hitting the headlines, as policymakers and activists across political divides seek to take action on them once and for all.
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08 Sep 2021 By Sahdya Darr
Afghans targeted by fake Home Office website
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is currently deciding whether it will take further action against a fake website created by the Home Office.
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27 Aug 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
Government prepares to take back control – of your privacy
The UK Government has unveiled their plans to deregulate data protection laws.
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18 Aug 2021 By Sahdya Darr
Digital deception & disinformation used to deter migrants
The Information Commissioner’s Office has opened an investigation into a fake website created by the Home Office.
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30 Jul 2021 By Sahdya Darr
Immigration, Data & Technology Newsletter
Welcome to the July edition of Immigration, Data and Technology!
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27 Jul 2021 By Heather Burns
Age verification in the Online Safety Bill
The draft Online Safety Bill’s provisions on mandatory age verification don’t just threaten your rights to privacy and freedom of expression – they also threaten the integrity of the Internet’s architecture.
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20 Jul 2021 By Heather Burns
Encryption in the Online Safety Bill
Let’s look at how the Online Safety Bill brings the contents of your private communications into scope for scanning, monitoring, and censorship.
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12 Jul 2021 By Heather Burns & Jim Killock
Racists must be prosecuted, not moderated
The wave of racist comments on social media that has followed the England football defeat is reprehensible: but so is the fiction that this problem must be ‘solved’ by social media companies.
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06 Jul 2021 By Heather Burns
Access denied: Service blocking in the Online Safety Bill
As the Online Safety Bill approaches the pre-legislative scrutiny process, attention is being drawn to the powers which government will have to redefine, constrain, and censor the boundaries of our free and legal speech.
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01 Jul 2021 By Mariano delli Santi
Fear and loathing in the UK adequacy decision
On June 28, the European Commission adopted the UK adequacy decision, which will allow personal data to be transferred from the EU to the UK without additional safeguards.
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30 Jun 2021 By Sahdya Darr
Newsletter: Immigration, Data and Technology
Welcome to the June edition of Immigration, Data and Technology!
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23 Jun 2021 By Heather Burns
Duty to Censor: What’s legal to say should be legal to type
Open Rights Group has joined Index on Censorship’s “Legal to say, legal to type” campaign to scrutinise and push back against the threats to freedom of expression created by government’s Online Safety Bill.
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