News
The latest news from Open Rights Group
27 March, 2020
NHS Must Explain Role Of Surveillance Company
PALANTIR HAS NEGATIVE REPUTATION—CAUTION AND TRANSPARENCY NEEDED
Reacting to news that surveillance company Palantir is in discussion with the NHS to “clean” and analyse bulk health data, including tracking of spare beds, ventilators and calls to 111.
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11 March, 2020
Campaigners welcome the creation of a Commissioner to oversee use of biometrics by Police in Scotland
Following the news that the Scottish Parliament has voted in favour of creating a Scottish Biometrics Commissioner, Matthew Rice, Scotland Director, Open Rights Groups said:
It has been a long time coming but we applaud the Scottish Parliament have voted to create a Scottish Biometrics Commissioner.
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06 March, 2020
Political parties deny true scale of using personal data for campaigning to Select Committee
The House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee have received written evidence from the Liberal Democrats, Labour, and the Conservatives on their digital campaigning practices.
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20 February, 2020
Google move endangers UK privacy
Moving UK users’ data to the USA makes bulk surveillance easier, and data protection harder.
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12 March, 2020
Online Harms Regulation Threatens Free Speech
Appointing state regulator for online speech creates censorship incentives: ‘duty of care’ is vague and an undefined concept
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:
“This is a dangerous proposal that could cause vast restrictions on free speech.
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06 February, 2020
ORG response to child’s rights groups letter to Facebook
Open Rights Group, responding to today’s reports of a child’s rights groups letter to Facebook, responded:
Encryption provides a secure internet for all, including children, and while well-meaning, these efforts are misguided.
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28 January, 2020
Government must pledge to uphold data privacy
In a letter to all MPs, ORG explains data protection in the UK is under threat following claims earlier this year by government sources that they wish to diverge from European privacy standards.
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22 January, 2020
Data Regulator pushes ahead with age gates
IMPACT ASSESSMENT MISSING IN ACTION
Over 280 ORG supporters wrote to the ICO about the previous draft code, to express concerns with compulsory age checks for websites, which could lead to restrictions on content.
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17 January, 2020
Age Verification Judicial Review endangers UK citizens’ privacy
Reacting to the Judicial Review launched by Tech companies to force Age Verification for adult content to be implemented (1) Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said:
“These companies are asking us to trust them with records of millions of people’s sexual preferences, with huge commercial reasons to use that data for profiling and advertising.
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17 January, 2020
Data regulator ICO fails to enforce the law
The complainants are considering taking legal action against the regulator.
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16 January, 2020
Open Rights Group and Privacy International statement on Police Scotland’s announcement to roll-out cyber kiosks
“Open Rights Group and Privacy International called on Police Scotland to prevent rolling out until the Scottish Government reformed the law to provide an overarching framework for the seizure of electronic devices in Scotland in line with human rights standards.
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14 January, 2020
NEWS RELEASE Mobile Adtech “out of control”
A report released today shows that Adtech in mobile apps is sharing user data far and wide, through adtech systems that include sensitive information such as sexuality, drug use, political views.
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10 January, 2020
Public are kept in the dark over data driven political campaigning, poll finds
Open Rights Group commissioned YouGov, a polling company, to conduct two polls to gauge public attitudes towards data driven campaigning practices.
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10 December, 2019
Open Rights Group joins international outcry over UK government calls to access private messages
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER 2019
Open Rights Group has joined dozens of other organizations signing an open letter to the UK government to express significant concerns raised by their recent statements against encryption.
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09 December, 2019
Campaigners demand answers over parties use of personal data in General Election
Directors, staff, and members of the Open Rights Group have demanded that the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, and Labour cease the processing of their data and to have their profiled data created about them erased.
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04 December, 2019
Campaigners release tool for the public to discover the extent of political party profiling during general election.
Open Rights Group (ORG) have released a tool to help UK voters turn the tables on political parties, by seeing what personal data they hold on them.
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22 November, 2019
Poll finds strong support for policies combating nefarious online campaigning activity
A poll commissioned by civil society organisation Open Rights Group has found strong public support for policies designed to curb the worst excesses of online campaigning.
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31 October, 2019
Twitter ban on political ads welcome move but ultimately symbolic one
Matthew Rice, Scotland Director, Open Rights Group, reacting to the Twitter ban on political ads said:
This decision by Twitter is a welcome move but ultimately a symbolic one.
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16 October, 2019
Government drops Age Verification plans
Reacting to news that plans for Age Verification for adult content have been halted, Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:
“Age verification for porn as currently legislated would cause huge privacy problems if it went ahead.
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04 October, 2019
Civil Society organisations raise concerns over rules designed to prevent a new Cambridge Analytica
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently issued a draft framework code of practice for the use of personal data in political campaigning.
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03 October, 2019
Open Rights Group and the3million seek to appeal immigration exemption judgment
The organisations argued at the High Court hearing, that took place on 23 and 24 July 2019, that the exemption is far too broad and is contrary to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
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29 August, 2019
Loophole in Facebook’s new ID rules on political ads leaves door wide open for astroturf groups
Facebook announced in a blog post that, from mid September, organisations and individuals in the US buying political ad space on its platform would have to provide more information than previously required.
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19 August, 2019
Cost and security issues fuel concern for 2020 GLA elections
The Greater London Authority (GLA) Elections use e-counting machines to tally votes.
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24 July, 2019
Controversial ‘immigration exemption’ used in 60% of cases, court case reveals
The figure was confirmed on the first day of a High Court challenge brought by the Open Rights Group and the3million.
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22 July, 2019
High Court to hear judicial review of the immigration exemption for data protection rights
The legal challenge has been brought by the Open Rights Group and the3million who argue that the immigration exemption, which passed into law in May 2018 as part of the Data Protection Act 2018, is unlawful.
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15 July, 2019
DCMS urged to make porn privacy scheme compulsory
The letter notes that the BBFC privacy standard contains broadly-worded provisions that allow age verification providers to write their own rules and that there are no penalties for providers who sign up to the scheme and fail to meet its requirements.
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03 July, 2019
‘Futurebook’ parody site shows a dystopian digital future
Launched today, Open Rights Group’s futurebook.
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01 July, 2019
Online Harms White Paper – ‘Duty of care not the right approach’ experts agree
This call, made jointly by the Oxford Internet Institute (part of the University of Oxford), Open Rights Group, The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), Global Partners Digital and Index on Censorship, responds to the government’s Online Harms White Paper.
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20 June, 2019
Complainants call on ICO to take action against adtech sector
The ICO has agreed in substance with the complainants’ points about the insecurity of adtech data sharing.
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20 June, 2019
NEWS RELEASE Age Verification delay is an opportunity to fix privacy in porn block
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“While it’s very embarrassing to delay age verification for the third time, this is an opportunity for the Government to address the many problems that this ill-thought through policy poses.
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14 June, 2019
ORG report: BBFC age verification standard is pointless, misleading and potentially dangerous
From July 15, people in the UK are expected to prove they are 18 if they want to watch porn online.
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03 June, 2019
Amazon enforcement action forces ink cartridge sellers to close
Epson has long used online platform content removal procedures as a form of privatised patent enforcement.
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07 May, 2019
Regulating Online Political Advertising Needs Data Use Transparency
Pascal Crowe, Data and Democracy Project Officer at Open Rights Group responded saying:
“Effectively regulating online political advertising needs to go beyond campaign spending and require greater transparency over parties’ use of personal data.
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17 April, 2019
‘Dangerous and irresponsible’ age verification goes ahead
Reacting to the government’s announcement on age verification for adult content, Jim Killock Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:
“The government needs to compel companies to enforce privacy standards.
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15 April, 2019
ICO Age Appropriate Design Code of Conduct: tread lightly
Reacting to the ICO Code of Conduct Matthew Rice, Open Rights Group said:
“It is welcome to see the ICO lay out strong “high privacy” by default including switching off geolocation, services the rely on profiling, and restricting nudge techniques, among others.
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08 April, 2019
DCMS publishes White Paper on Internet Safety and Online Harm
The White Paper focuses heavily on the duties of social media platforms to police user-generated content.
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27 March, 2019
European Parliament approves controversial Copyright Directive
Reacting to the vote in the European Parliament, Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group said:
“This is a very bad day for free expression, for copyright and democracy.
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27 February, 2019
BBFC fails to explain its porn privacy scheme at meeting 300m from its office
Pornographic websites will soon have to verify the age of their website visitors, under the Digital Economy Act 2017.
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06 February, 2019
KARMA POLICE: UK mass surveillance challenge will go to Europe’s highest human rights court
6 February 2019
In September 2018 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that the UK’s mass interception programmes breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
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13 September, 2018
UK mass surveillance ruled unlawful in landmark judgment
The Court found that the UK’s mass surveillance programmes, revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, did ‘not meet the “quality of law” requirement’ and were ‘incapable of keeping the “interference” to what is “necessary in a democratic society”’.
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12 September, 2018
MEPs advance Article 13 of EU Copyright Directive
Open Rights Group has been campaigning against Article 13 over concerns that free speech will be impacted through the large scale removal of material without adequate review.
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30 August, 2018
Open Rights Group and the3million launch judicial review challenging the Data Protection Act’s immigration exemption
The challenge has been brought by Open Rights Group (ORG) – a UK based digital campaigning organisation working to protect the rights to privacy and free speech online and the3million – the largest grassroots organisation of EU citizens living in the UK.
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29 June, 2018
Online tool helps public find out how data is being used by Fintech companies
Data Rights Finder will make it easier for people to request, change and delete the data that companies hold about them.
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13 June, 2018
Open Rights Group victory in Supreme Court web blocking challenge
Open Rights Group acted as an intervener in this case.
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04 June, 2018
Nearly 40% of court order blocks are in error, ORG finds
A new tool added to its blocked.
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09 May, 2018
Rights groups to take Government to court over shocking immigration exemption
This exemption will affect everyone involved in an immigration case, for example: those seeking refuge in the UK, those affected by the Windrush scandal, the three million EU citizens who will have to submit their applications for a new immigration status after Brexit.
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12 March, 2018
Age Verification pushed back
The deadline for the implementation of the Government’s potentially disastrous Age Verification scheme has officially been pushed back to ‘before the end of the year’.
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05 March, 2018
Government Warned Legal Action Coming if Immigration Exemption Enacted
Formal legal action has been launched against the UK Government today over the inclusion of a specific clause in the new Data Protection Bill which means at least three million people across the country would be unable to find out what personal data the Home Office or other related organisations hold on them under a clause the government claims is needed for ‘effective immigration control’.
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30 January, 2018
Open Rights Group respond to court ruling that government surveillance regime unlawful
“Once again, another UK court has found another piece of Government surveillance legislation to be unlawful.
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20 December, 2017
ORG responds to annual report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner (IOCCO)
Responding to today’s publication of the 2016 annual report of the outgoing Interception of Communications Commissioner (IOCCO), the Open Rights Group highlighted a number of issues.
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14 December, 2017
Open Rights Group respond to news BBFC proposed as Age Verification regulator
Responding to the news that the BBFC are in line to be appointed Age Verification regulator, Jim Killock Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said:
“The BBFC will struggle to ensure that Age Verification is safe, secure and anonymous.
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12 December, 2017
Theresa May told to make Mark Zuckerberg a national censor
Reacting to Theresa May’s proposal to make social media companies liable for content, Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:
“This is an attempt to make Mark Zuckerberg a national censor.
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07 December, 2017
Open Rights Group and the3million tell Government immigration exemption must be removed
The Government’s proposals found in the Data Protection Bill would remove the right of individuals subject to an immigration procedure to discover what personal data companies and public authorities hold on them.
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04 December, 2017
Nadine Dorries admits to unlawful data privacy in her offices
Reacting to Nadine Dorries’ admission on Twitter that she routinely gives access to her personal Parliamentary accounts to interns, Jim Killock said:
“On the face of it, Nadine Dorries is admitting to breaching basic data protection laws, making sure her constituents’ emails and correspondence is kept confidential and secure.
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30 November, 2017
ORG Responds to Government’s proposed changes to the Investigatory Powers Act
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:
“The government has evaded the main point of the Watson judgment: they cannot keep data on a blanket basis.
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22 November, 2017
Give us the right to defend the elderly and children’s privacy, say campaigners
Campaigners asked for the right for organisations to seek redress directly, when personal data is abused, without having to seek out individual complainants.
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16 November, 2017
ORG responds to Prince William’s comments about danger of anonymity online
Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said:
“Anonymity online can be very important, for instance for whistleblowers, journalists and people seeking to read banned information where facts and opinions are censored.
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07 November, 2017
UK NGOs CHALLENGE UK GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE AT THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Big Brother Watch and Others v UK will be heard alongside 10 Human Rights Organisations and Others v UK and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Alice Ross v UK, four years after the initial application to the ECtHR.
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27 October, 2017
Met police refuse to reveal extremism statistics
The Met reiterated their previous information that: “Since 2010, 270,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material have been removed by social media providers, following referrals from the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.
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25 October, 2017
eBay must stop Epson’s patent abuse
Epson are engaging in a campaign to stop resellers from stocking certain Epson-compatible ink cartridges, alleging patent infringements.
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03 October, 2017
ORG responds to Amber Rudd’s calls to criminalise viewing of extremist content
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, said:
“This is incredibly dangerous.
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03 October, 2017
ORG responds to Amber Rudd’s calls to criminalise viewing of extremist content
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, said:
“This is incredibly dangerous.
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03 October, 2017
ORG responds to Amber Rudd’s calls to criminalise viewing of extremist content
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, said:
“This is incredibly dangerous.
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03 October, 2017
ORG responds to Amber Rudd’s calls to criminalise viewing of extremist content
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, said:
“This is incredibly dangerous.
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03 October, 2017
ORG responds to Amber Rudd’s calls to criminalise viewing of extremist content
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, said:
“This is incredibly dangerous.
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26 September, 2017
Comment on Vulnerable Person’s Database from Scotland Director Matthew Rice
Scotland Director, Matthew Rice said:
“Police Scotland’s attempt to fix a problem has created another headache.
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26 September, 2017
Org response to conviction of Cage Director for terror offences
Executive Director, Jim Killock said:
“These powers are blanket and do not require suspicion.
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20 September, 2017
ORG response to calls for automated takedowns of online extremist content
Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:
“Internet companies have a role to play in removing illegal content from their platforms but we need to recognise the limitations of relying on automated takedowns.
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14 September, 2017
Data Protection Bill must give privacy groups right to lodge complaints
ORG welcomes the Bill, which will improve our ability to control how data is collected and used.
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21 August, 2017
ORG response to CPS announcement on social media hate crime
Legal Director, Myles Jackman said:
“It is quite right that people who hide behind social media to commit hate crime should be held accountable for their actions by the criminal justice system and clearly, internet companies should not be left to ‘police’ online speech.
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07 August, 2017
Data Protection Bill to be welcomed but still needs work
Javier Ruiz – policy director at digital rights campaign organisation Open Rights Group – said,
“We welcome the Government’s intention to bring European data protection laws into UK law.
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01 August, 2017
Real people care about security
Responding to Amber Rudd’s comments today suggesting that “real people” don’t expect security in their communications, Jim Killock – executive director of UK digital rights campaign Open Rights Group – said:
“The suggestion that real people do not care about the security of their communications is dangerous and misleading.
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26 July, 2017
Brexit trade agreements ‘fragile’ after CJEU opinion on Passenger Name Record data
Any future agreement between the EU and UK would similarly be open to challenge if the UK’s laws do not uphold the privacy of EU citizens.
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17 July, 2017
Age verification plans put web users’ privacy at risk
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“Age verification could lead to porn companies building databases of the UK’s porn habits, which could be vulnerable to Ashley Madison style hacks.
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21 June, 2017
ORG response to Queen’s speech 2017
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“We need to ensure that Internet companies have as much incentive to fully protect free speech as they do to remove illegal content.
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12 June, 2017
Conservative plans for Internet clampdown are a distraction
Executive Director Jim Killock said: “To push on with these extreme proposals for Internet clampdowns would appear to be a distraction from the current political situation and from effective measures against terror.
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12 May, 2017
FOI response reveals porn company’s proposals for UK to block millions of porn sites
MindGeek, who are also developing Age Verification technology, said that the Government’s plans to prevent children from seeing pornography would not be effective unless millions of sites could be blocked.
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10 May, 2017
Rights groups demand more transparency over Facebook’s ‘insights’ into young users
Facebook should immediately release all documents describing how it collected and analyzed psychological information it recently collected about its youngest users, some as young as 14, and college students, Public Citizen and a coalition of 25 groups said in a letter to the corporation today.
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05 May, 2017
Selective, secret consultations have no place in open Government
This is a ‘targeted consultation’ and has not been publicised to the tech industry or public.
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03 May, 2017
Law Commission’s ‘shoddy and confused’ proposals would threaten free speech in UK
In their own report, ORG condemns the proposals as, “shoddy and confused, contradictory, poorly researched, and ill-informed on public interest issues”.
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01 May, 2017
ORG response to Home Affairs Committee report on hate speech and Internet companies
Executive Director, Jim Killock said:
“This report is very imbalanced.
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27 April, 2017
Parliament votes to put privacy in hands of porn companies
The Digital Economy Bill (DEBill) will require that porn sites verify the age of their users in order to prevent under 18s from viewing pornography.
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26 April, 2017
UK falls two places in World Press Freedom Index
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“Extensive surveillance powers are threatening investigative journalism and freedom of expression in the UK.
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21 April, 2017
Government must respond to CJEU ruling on surveillance
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“The government still hasn’t stated how it will respond to a CJEU ruling, which calls into question the legal basis for the current data retention regime.
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30 March, 2017
Campaigners call for transparency over Home Office meetings with tech companies
Rudd has asked for a meeting to discuss ways that companies can help the Government combat terrorism.
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28 March, 2017
Home Office breaching Cabinet Office guidelines over surveillance consultation argue campaigners
A group of lawyers, civil liberty groups and trade unions have written to the Home Secretary Amber Rudd to ask her to re-run her consultation into new Codes of Practice required under the Investigatory Powers Act.
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26 March, 2017
ORG responds to Amber Rudd’s comments on WhatsApp and encrypted communications
Rudd made the comments on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme.
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20 March, 2017
Home Office tender suggests Government has accepted CJEU ruling on independent authorisation for retained data
The invitation acknowledges a 2016 judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or ECJ), stating that:
“The ECJ has recently upheld an appeal which challenges the current UK communications data retention and acquisition regime.
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16 March, 2017
Scottish Government drops controversial ID database proposals
Open Rights Group welcomes the Scottish Government’s decision to drop proposals that would have paved the way for a national ID register in Scotland.
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14 February, 2017
Digital Economy Bill could make UK citizens vulnerable to blackmail
Proposals in the Digital Economy Bill would mean that anyone found guilty of online copyright infringement could now get up to ten years in prison.
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13 February, 2017
Espionage law would criminalise journalists
Reacting to the consultation to create a new “Espionage Act”, Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said:
“This is a full frontal attack on journalism, recommending criminalising even examining at secret services’ material.
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25 January, 2017
Stop Trump getting our data
Open Rights Group has called on the Prime Minister to ensure that the UK is not complicit with human rights abuses if President Trump keeps his promises to reinstate waterboarding and torture.
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21 December, 2016
Parliament must change the Investigatory Powers Act in response to CJEU ruling
The judgment relates to a case brought by Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson MP, over intrusive data retention powers.
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15 December, 2016
Government admits that Twitter could be forced to block accounts for UK users
Please sign the petition against these proposals
Proposals in the Digital Economy Bill will allow the BBFC to compel Internet Service Providers to block websites that don’t comply with age verification.
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29 November, 2016
Investigatory Powers Act is UK’s most extreme surveillance law
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“Amber Rudd says the Investigatory Powers Act is world-leading legislation.
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29 November, 2016
MPs vote for a national censor
Amendments to the Digital Economy Bill were accepted by MPs during its third reading yesterday.
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27 November, 2016
Petition means that parliament must consider IP Bill debate
Executive Director Jim Killock said:
“The IP Bill was debated and passed while the public, media and politicians were preoccupied by Brexit.
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25 November, 2016
Know your rights when it comes to e-receipts on Black Friday
As well as encouraging shoppers to assert their legal rights, ORG is calling on shops to make sure they are not breaking the UK’s data protection laws.
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24 November, 2016
Government departments could share personal health and financial data with energy companies
Proposals in the Digital Economy Bill could see private energy companies being given personal data, including information about UK citizens’ health, housing and finances.
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17 November, 2016
The Investigatory Powers Bill’s impact will reach beyond the UK
Executive Director Jim Killock responded:
“The passing of the IP Bill will have an impact that goes beyond the UK’s shores.
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