Blog
The latest blogs from Open Rights Group
18 Dec 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
10 Brilliant Moments
This year we saw thousands of people take part in our campaigns to defend our rights online.
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08 Dec 2014 By Lydia Snodin
ORGCon Day 2 – Learning How To Campaign
The second day of our annual conference was a series of interactive training sessions to share information on how to campaign, plus an all-day hack space.
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05 Dec 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Court ruling paves the way for European Court of Human Rights to consider ‘Privacy not PRISM’ case
The decision should enable the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to proceed with hearing the “Privacy not PRISM” case brought by ORG and others.
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05 Dec 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Court ruling paves the way for European Court of Human Rights to consider ‘Privacy not PRISM’ case
The decision should enable the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to proceed with hearing the “Privacy not PRISM” case brought by ORG and others.
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05 Dec 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Court ruling paves the way for European Court of Human Rights to consider ‘Privacy not PRISM’ case
The decision should enable the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to proceed with hearing the “Privacy not PRISM” case brought by ORG and others.
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05 Dec 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Court ruling paves the way for European Court of Human Rights to consider ‘Privacy not PRISM’ case
The decision should enable the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to proceed with hearing the “Privacy not PRISM” case brought by ORG and others.
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05 Dec 2014 By Jim Killock
Website blocking orders made more transparent
So far, BT, Sky and Virgin are providing more information about the blocks, stating that:
you have the right to apply to the High Court to vary or discharge the Orders below if you are affected by the blocks which have been imposed.
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02 Dec 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
ORGCon2014: In review
Thank you so much for coming to ORGCon2014, we hope you had a brilliant time, and enjoyed learning and meeting with the digital rights community.
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26 Nov 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Lee Rigby murder should not be used as excuse for an increase in state power
The report showed that Rigby’s killers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale had appeared in seven different investigations by the security services and there were “errors in these operations, where processes were not followed, decisions not recorded, or delays encountered”.
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24 Nov 2014 By Jim Killock
Blanket data retention does not come in ‘good’ and ‘bad’ forms
These principles include that data retention should be targeted against a specific threat, confined by criteria such as a specific time or place.
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12 Nov 2014 By Florri Burton
3 days to go till ORGCon2014
We are all busy getting ready for ORGCon2014 this weekend.
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11 Nov 2014 By Javier Ruiz
ORG and Privacy International publish guidance on privacy and open government
Open Rights Group and Privacy International have worked with the Transparency and Accountability Initiative to develop a new chapter on Privacy and Data Protection in the Open Government Guide, which will be officially launched at Open Up on November 12th.
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06 Nov 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
GCHQ are plunging into the privacy debate.
Writing in Tuesday’s Financial Times, the new director of GCHQ Robert Hannigan, called for “greater co-operation from technology companies” to stop terrorists and criminals groups using online services as their “command-and-control networks of choice”.
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06 Nov 2014 By Jim Killock
The courts should decide how much privacy we’re entitled to – not GCHQ
In his first public statement since becoming Director of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan yesterday described the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple as, ‘the command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals,’ and called on them to give ‘greater co-operation’ to the intelligence services.
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18 Oct 2014 By Richard King
Hacking for your digital rights
The day was all about planning and prototyping hacks to help defend digital rights directly, raise awareness of ORG’s issues, support our campaigns with evidence and make ORG more accessible to everyone.
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14 Oct 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
TTIP’s threat to our privacy and culture
TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) is a trade agreement currently being negotiated behind closed doors between the United States and the European Union.
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06 Oct 2014 By Ed Paton-Williams and Elizabeth Knight
Journalists and their sources require privacy. But so does everyone else
We support stronger protection for journalists and their sources.
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03 Oct 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Join ORG to fight increasing surveillance and attacks on our human rights
David Cameron also announced that the government intends to scrap the Human Rights Act.
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02 Oct 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Will we now see parliamentary footage used in parodies?
Previously, broadcasters had been banned from using the footage for purposes other than reporting news.
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30 Sep 2014 By Jim Killock
Theresa May’s call for new Snooper’s Charter can launch a national debate
Theresa May said:
… because the way in which we communicate is increasingly online, our ability to obtain the data we need is declining rapidly and dangerously.
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25 Sep 2014 By David Allen Green
When can a High Court grant an injunction to trade mark holders against ISPs to block access to ‘infringing’ websites?
The question before the Court is whether the owner of a trade mark can obtain an injunction – not against an alleged counterfeiter, or even against the owners and operators of the websites on which counterfeiters sell their items.
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23 Sep 2014 By Jim Killock
Help us start campaigning in Scotland
Major questions remain.
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16 Sep 2014 By Javier Ruiz
ORG rejects calls for 10 year prison sentences for online copyright breaches
The consultation, carried out on behalf of the IPO by Inngot is based around the following question:
“Today, there is a significant difference between the penalties for offline and online copyright infringement.
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04 Sep 2014 By Javier Ruiz
Culture Secretary threatens search engines with anti-piracy legislation
In his speech to the AGM of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) Javid skimmed over existing government policies, from tax reliefs to £246 million in music education hubs that will give children the chance to learn to play an instrument.
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04 Sep 2014 By Pam Cowburn
Tom Newton Dunn is one in half a million
The request was made to identify police whistleblowers who contacted Newton Dunn over the Plebgate scandal.
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29 Aug 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
Digital Rights in Scotland: Decision Time
As the vote on Scottish Independence fast approaches, we are worried by the lack of a strong network of rights organisations in Scotland.
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19 Aug 2014 By Pam Cowburn
Cameron’s big stand will have little impact
Yesterday, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced his latest effort to take a ‘big stand on protecting our children online’.
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30 Jul 2014 By Javier Ruiz
Victory: format shifting and parody clear last hurdle
Reform of outdated copyright laws has been a major campaign focus for ORG from day one.
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25 Jul 2014 By Javier Ruiz
Ofcom report shows consumers don’t want filters
The ISPs told Ofcom how many customers have been offered the filters, and how many have set them up.
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18 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
Dear Theresa, see you in court
But in doing so they won’t have had the final word.
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17 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock and Elizabeth Knight
DRIP: Convenience or Necessity?
What is beyond doubt is that the UK police seem to use data on a pretty routine basis.
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16 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
Scottish NGO results
We have removed most of the “dead” websites we found in the dataset.
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15 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
#DRIP heroes, round one
#DRIP HEROES
For a list of everyone who voted against the bill, a smaller list, see Hansard.
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10 Jul 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
‘Emergency’ Data Retention: What I told my MP
The European Court of Justice ruled in April that blanket data retention, which the government requires of ISPs, is illegal and ignores the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection.
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10 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
Updates on ’emergency’ data retention law
Email your MP – No Emergency!
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07 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
Theresa May is attempting to mislead the public
The real reason they need to legislate on data retention is that they are asking ISPs to operate illegally by retaining data, since the CJEU struck the Data Retention Directive down.
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Digital Privacy
06 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
What Google isn’t doing with requests for search redaction
A search for Stan o’Neal brings up Robert Peston’s article on the first page.
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03 Jul 2014 By Jim Killock
Getting filter categories right
When we set up our filtered Internet lines, we did our best to choose the ‘normal’ set of filters for each line.
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Digital Privacy
02 Jul 2014 By Pam Cowburn
ORG’s Blocked project finds almost 1 in 5 sites are blocked by filters
Today, Open Rights Group relaunched www.
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19 Jun 2014 By Elizabeth Knight
Data retention: why we have to keep the pressure on ISPs
In the last four hours, over 400 ORG supporters have contacted their ISPs to demand that they stop retaining customers’ email, SMS, web and phone data.
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19 Jun 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Demand your ISP stops retaining your data
In April, the European law forcing Internet Service Providers like BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin to collect our communications data was struck down by the European Court of Justice.
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10 Jun 2014 By Pam Cowburn
Don’t Spy on Us: Day of Action, June 7, 2014
On Saturday, June 7, the Don’t Spy on Us campaign and The Guardian hosted a day of action to mark the anniversary of Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass surveillance by the NSA and GCHQ.
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07 Jun 2014 By Jim Killock
No transparency for the UK in Vodafone’s transparency report
Vodafone’s argument for publishing these statistics where they can is that “The need for governments to balance their duty to protect the state and its citizens against their duty to protect individual privacy is now the focus of a significant global public debate.
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05 Jun 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Snowden: one year on and still no action by the British government
Last weekend I was on holiday in Hamburg.
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04 Jun 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
Big announcement: Strengthening ORG’s legal work
ORG’s first full time Legal Director started work this week.
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29 May 2014 By Javier Ruiz
How will government share your data?
The Cabinet Office has started an early pre-consultation process looking at removing barriers to sharing or linking different databases across government departments.
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22 May 2014 By Jim Killock
Please vote for a digital rights candidate today
WePromise.
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15 May 2014 By Javier Ruiz
Landmark ruling by European Court on Google and the “Right to be Forgotten”
The European Court of Justice has published a landmark ruling forcing Google to remove some search results related to Mr Costeja González, a Spanish national, after he claimed the linked information was outdated and irrelevant, giving a wrong impression of him.
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14 May 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
ORG hands in petition saying no to HMRC’s tax data sell off
We handed in our tax data sell-off petition to HMRC earlier today, along with ORG Advisory Council member Julian Huppert MP and campaign groups 38 Degrees and SumofUs.
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13 May 2014 By Jason Kitcat
Guest blog: Estonia and the risks of internet voting
In my capacity as an ORG Advisory Council member I’ve been working with an independent team of election observers researching the Internet voting systems used by Estonia.
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08 May 2014 By Jim Killock
Lobby tries to kill private copying with demand for iPod tax
Right now, both the private copying exception and parody appear to be delayed.
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16 Apr 2014 By Jim Killock
Quiz your MEP candidates on digital rights
Last week, the European Court of Justice declared the Data Retention Directive invalid: which has huge implications for our claim that UK law supervising surveillance is inadequate.
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15 Apr 2014 By Jim Killock
Help us to re-start the debate about internet filters
At times the campaign to prevent internet filters has bordered on the surreal, such as when the Deputy Children’s Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said, ‘no one should be panicking – but why should there not be a moral panic?
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Digital Privacy
14 Apr 2014 By Richard King
Making progress on monitoring censorship
Since the start of the year ORG’s community of technical volunteers have been turning blocked.
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10 Apr 2014 By Jim Killock
Back to the coalition agreement: data retention laws should not be revived
No doubt, once the coalition settled down, ministers were briefed that the retention of user data was required by European law: so they could easily forget about this pledge.
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09 Apr 2014 By Jim Killock
ISPs will break the law if they continue to retain our data
The Data Retention Directive is retrospectively invalid: not only is it gone, but in legal terms it never was.
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08 Apr 2014 By Pam Cowburn
Victory for privacy rights as ECJ rules that Data Retention Directive is invalid
There was a major victory for privacy rights today when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the 2006 Data Retention Directive is invalid on the grounds that it severely interferes with two of our fundamental rights: the right to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data.
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Digital Privacy
07 Apr 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
We’re making web censorship more transparent – thanks to you!
The generosity of our supporters raised more than £6500 to support our campaign to end the imposition of web censorship in the UK.
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04 Apr 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Defend your digital rights in the European elections this May
While Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg kicked around old political footballs like immigration on Wednesday night, there was a glaring omission from the debate: digital rights.
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03 Apr 2014 By Jim Killock
Join to found ORG Scotland
Last month, we asked our Scottish supporters whether we should set up an office to deal with policies from Holyrood.
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28 Mar 2014 By Jim Killock
Copyright: it’s a long fight to get it right
The result is that ORG has been fighting since 2005 for sensible copyright laws, and resisting overblown attempts by rights holders to control the flow of information on the Internet.
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27 Mar 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Thanks to ORG supporters copyright takes a great leap forward into the 21st century
This is a big victory for ORG.
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26 Mar 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Why is parodying Sky’s Captain America filtering adverts still illegal?
He’s “Here to serve and protect your family” with “Heroic new internet protection that lets you filter which websites can be seen in your home.
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21 Mar 2014 By Pam Cowburn
Bingo and beer spoofs show that our copyright laws are a joke
After the Conservative Chairman, Grant Shapps, tweeted an advert praising cuts to beer and bingo duty, Twitter responded with a series of spoofs ads that derided this seemingly clumsy attempt to engage with the working classes.
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20 Mar 2014 By Emily Goodhand
Why UK copyright reform is needed
This is a guest blog post by Emily Goodhand.
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20 Mar 2014 By Jim Killock
Will ‘voluntary’ copyright enforcement protect users’ rights?
It is approaching four years since the Digital Economy Act was passed, and still measures within it to deal with individuals alleged to have infringed copyright have not been implemented.
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17 Mar 2014 By Javier Ruiz
EU crucial vote on Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is a fundamental aspect of the Internet as we know it.
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12 Mar 2014 By Alan Cox
Openness and Privacy in Big Data
This is a guest blog from ORG Advisory Council member Alan Cox.
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12 Mar 2014 By Javier Ruiz
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.
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Digital Privacy
10 Mar 2014 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
Support ORG’s Censorship Monitoring Project
ORG are building tools to monitor the effects of default filtering in the UK
Can you join us now to help keep this project going?
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07 Mar 2014 By Jim Killock
The world we want and how we get there
We wrote this short statement of our aims, objectives and values after asking all our supporters what you thought we should be working on, and what you thought our values are.
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28 Feb 2014 By Javier Ruiz
ICO Survey on the Code of Practice on Anonymisation
The ICO survey on the Code of Practice on Anonymisation closes today.
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11 Feb 2014 By Peter Bradwell
Join our new campaign to fight mass surveillance
You can learn more about the new campaign, sign our petition and email your MP at our new Don’t Spy On Us campaign site.
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07 Feb 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Don’t Spy On Us – Help get the word out!
On Tuesday, internet users all over the world are standing up to say no to GCHQ and the NSA’s mass surveillance.
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04 Feb 2014 By Jim Killock
You did it!
You can still help out – there are always extra costs, including rent and fees for legal publications, that an extra contribution can cover costs for.
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03 Feb 2014 By ORG Law project
Our lawyers want to have a word with you
That’s why we are asking you to join ORG today, so they can hire a Legal Director.
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29 Jan 2014 By Cory Doctorow
Open Rights Group and impact litigation
This case not only marks a chance to make a change for better—it also marks a new stage in ORG’s growth as an organisation that makes the Internet safe for human habitation.
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Digital Privacy
23 Jan 2014 By Peter Bradwell
What’s happening to your medical records and how you can opt out
Where your records will be stored, the people deciding who has access to them, the reasons people can access them – all of these things are affected by what’s happening.
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15 Jan 2014 By Peter Bradwell
How to complain about mobile filtering over-blocking
Yesterday we had a very helpful meeting with the BBFC.
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08 Jan 2014 By Ed Johnson-Williams
MEPs release draft report damning blanket Internet surveillance
It won’t be officially presented to the committee until tomorrow but you can already read the draft report on the EU Parliament website.
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24 Dec 2013 By Jim Killock
O2 pulls blocked URL checker as wave of new customers activate their phones
While O2 are the only company providing any transparency with their checker, this is a bad move.
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23 Dec 2013 By Jim Killock
Help ORG monitor UK blocking and filtering
ORG is putting together tools to track what is blocked and where.
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23 Dec 2013 By Jim Killock
Blocking: what could possibly go wrong?
We now have two kinds of blocking: firstly, mobile companies, providing one or two levels of filtering, which has to be actively switched off.
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Digital Privacy
19 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Ten recommendations to ISPs for dealing with over-blocking
We started looking closely at internet filtering by mobile networks a couple of years ago.
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18 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Why WordPress bloggers were blocked by TalkTalk, and what it tells us about Internet filtering
At the end of November a number of WordPress blog admins complained on WordPress forums that they were having problems accessing their accounts.
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Digital Privacy
13 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
BT answers our questions about parental controls
Today BT launched their new Parental Controls service, the latest ISP to roll out network level filters following the Government’s push this summer.
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12 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Data Retention Directive breaches fundamental rights, says Advocate General
The Court of Justice of the European Union is considering whether the European law about collecting and storing communications data (information about our communications) is compatible with the European Chater of Fundamental Rights.
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Digital Privacy
11 Dec 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Important opinion about data retention due tomorrow
Update: The opinion has now been published, with the Advocate General arguing that the Directive breaches the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
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06 Dec 2013 By Ruth Coustick-Deal
A milestone for Open Rights Group: 2000 supporters
We are really proud of what we’ve achieved in 2013.
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04 Dec 2013 By Jim Killock
Lord Younger promises right to parody
Lord Younger’s letter to ORG is here in reply to our letter.
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02 Dec 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Brighton Crypto Party
Lego Panopticon – Image CC-BY-SA @limbicfish
The event was jointly organised with the Lighthouse, Brighton’s leading digital culture agency.
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28 Nov 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Government touts backroom deals to block extremist websites
Rumblings about a forthcoming announcement to block “extremism” and “terrorist” content began this summer.
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26 Nov 2013 By Ed Johnson-Williams
Necessary and Proportionate: Support the 13 International Principles
Their national intelligence and investigative agencies capture our phone calls, track our location, peer into our address books, and read our emails.
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25 Nov 2013 By Javier Ruiz
Open government groups demand curbs on mass surveillance
The current wave of open government programmes puts a heavy emphasis on the use of digital technologies – websites and smartphones – to deliver on transparency and accountability.
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20 Nov 2013 By Jim Killock
Dear government, copyright reform – is it happening?
The recommendations it put forward, for instance for user rights to format shifting (ie, copy CDs to your iPod legally), archives, education and parody are modest but necessary.
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18 Nov 2013 By Jim Killock
Child abuse image policies risk looking like cynical manipulation
The government have promoted this as a victory, commanding today’s headlines.
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Digital Privacy
15 Nov 2013 By Peter Bradwell
Sky’s reply to ORG on default internet filters
Sky are the first Internet Service Provider to send us answers to all of our questions about their default filtering.
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Digital Privacy
09 Nov 2013 By Jim Killock
Now talking is treachery
The security services in Parliament claimed that the Guardian’s stories have led directly to discussions among terrorists to improve their information security.
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