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ORG's submission to the Electoral Commission's review - "The future of the Electoral Commission"

The music industry says that artists, labels, and songwriters are getting a raw deal from services that…

Open Rights Group has criticised the European Commission's proposals for the Directive on Copyright in the Single Market, published today.

GCHQ have a dual and rather contradictory mandate: they are asked to get around security measures, break into systems and snoop on citizens. They are also asked to protect the UK from cyber attacks by improving security protections.

Open Right Group has criticised parts of the Digital Economy Bill (DEB), which has its second reading in the House of Commons today. While the Bill includes some beneficial proposals, there are worrying plans that could affect UK citizens’ rights.

Help us stop new UK legislation that empowers copyright trolls with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for ordinary file-sharers

This briefing is also available in PDF format.  Summary Open Rights Group have several concerns over…

Leaked EU Copyright Directive ignores ordinary internet users and presents limited reforms to support creators, researchers, teachers and librarians, while providing a sledgehammer of protectionist measures for the incumbent news, music and film industries.

The review of bulk surveillance powers by David Anderson supports the operational case for the current practices of the agencies. The review did not look at the wider impacts of mass surveillance and any further discussions need to take both aspects into account.

In today's review David Anderson provides broad support for the bulk surveillance powers included in the Investigatory Powers Bill going through Parliament. The review will be used to inform the next stages of parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill in the coming months.

The House of Lords debated the IPBill in the Committee this Wednesday for the last time before the summer recess. The topics covered the Internet Connection Records (ICRs), the Request Filter and equipment interference. Here is a brief breakdown of what was said. We will be back in September with more.

The political events of the last month, including the referendum and appointment of a new Prime Minister, could have a major effect on digital rights in the UK. We continued campaigning against the IP Bill in House of Lords, responded to the European net neutrality consultation and are preparing our response to the new Digital Economy Bill. All of this while exploring the potential consequences of Brexit for digital rights. As always, we cannot do this work without your support. The next years will be some of the most difficult and important we have had yet.

It is an increasing feature of debates about the mass retention of data that nobody wants to be the person that says yes or no. It is so clearly problematic to retain huge amounts of personal data, and in some cases to analyse it, that it is hard to see how it could ever be reconciled with the right to privacy.

The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union has published his Opinion on data retention by EU member states. The subsequent judgment will have implications for the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) and the Investigatory Powers Bill (IP BIll).

A US court has ruled that Microsoft does not have to hand over data from an email account to the US authorities because the data is held on a server in Ireland.

Boris Johnson’s appointment as Foreign Secretary has become a listicle lover’s dream as every news outlets compiles its favourite diplomatic faux pas.

European telcos and big industrial conglomerates demand relaxation of Net Neutrality rules, threatening to delay major investments on new 5G mobile technology.

BEREC, the European telecommunications regulator, is consulting on net neutrality at the moment.

Our first impressions on the Digital Economy Bill 2016. We will be looking each section in more detail over the coming weeks.

The House of Lords starts to debate the Investigatory Powers Bill on Monday 11th June.

Yesterday, the Digital Economy Bill had its first reading in Parliament.

The UK’s vote to leave the EU means that we no longer have a clear idea what levels and kinds of protection of digital rights we will have in the future. Nearly all the relevant law is European. A lot depends on the kind of model of leaving the EU that the UK adopts.

The outcome of the referendum could affect the progress of the IP Bill.

Digital rights campaigners, the Open Rights Group have called on the Government to stop the progression…

ORG responded to the consultation on Draft BEREC Guidelines on implementation by National Regulators…

Tesco Mobile has announced a new optional scheme in which its customers can get £3 a month off their phone bill. In return, customers agree to see adverts on their lockscreen "every few times" they unlock their phone.

ORG has responded to the EU public consultation on the role of publishers in the copyright value chain - ancillary publishers rights - and on the 'panorama exception'.

MPs discussed and voted on the Investigatory Powers Bill last week in the report stage of the Bill's progression through Parliament. This was MPs' third vote before the Bill was sent to the House of Lords. The Bill was passed by a vote of 444 to 69. Here's an overview of the points that were raised for discussion – many of which will be debated again by the Lords.

The short answer is: not a lot, and nowhere near enough. As Andy Burnham and the Labour opposition has claimed they have made progress with the Investigatory Powers Bill, here is the low down of what really happened.

We’d like to thank you for all the work you’ve done so far to challenge the IPBill. MPs voted in favour of the Investigatory Powers Bill by 444 to 69. This was disappointing but expected - we know how hard the Government is trying to push this Bill through.