Bits of Freedom

Last updated

Bits Of Freedom is an independent Dutch digital rights foundation, which focuses on privacy and communications freedom in the digital age. The foundation protects the right for privacy and the right to communications freedom in the Netherlands. Bits of Freedom started in 2000 and had a break between 2006 and August 2009 due to lack of funding. On August 14, 2009, Bits of Freedom continued its activities with funding provided by the Internet4All Foundation.

Contents

Bits of Freedom organizes the Dutch version of the Big Brother Awards, initiated European cooperation between digital rights watch foundations in European Digital Rights (EDRI) and collects information about data leaks in the Netherlands to raise awareness of the potential dangers of increasing collection of data.

The Multatuli Project

The Multatuli Project, subtitled ISP Notice and take down, was the title of an experiment done by members of the Bits of Freedom group in the summer of 2004. [1] [2] The group uploaded excerpts from Multatuli to websites hosted at 10 different Dutch ISPs, content which has been in the public domain since 1957. They then sent a complaint about the content from a Hotmail account posing as a legal advisor to the 10 ISPs; seven of them complied and removed the site, one within just three hours, without investigating the legality of the matter, or asking questions about the dubious background of the requester.

Big Brother Awards

To raise awareness of privacy-related issues, Bits of Freedom holds annual Big Brother Awards. This prize is awarded to businesses, governmental institutions and persons who have harmed privacy or increased civilian surveillance in the past year. The award is named after the character "Big Brother" from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four .

The winners of the Big Brother Awards 2011 [3] were the National Police Services Agency (now the national police corps) (in the category "governmental institutions") for the use of spyware and hacking of hacking victims, minister Edith Schippers (in the category "people") for forcing a restart of the Dutch Electronic health record, in spite of it not being supported by the Netherlands Senate, Facebook (in the category "business") for going to the stock market without safeguards for user privacy and finally minister Fred Teeven (in the category "popular vote") for further harming privacy legislation.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaos Computer Club</span> Germany based hackers organization

The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an eingetragener Verein in Germany, with local chapters in various cities in Germany and the surrounding countries, particularly where there are German-speaking communities. Since 1985, some chapters in Switzerland have organized an independent sister association called the Chaos Computer Club Schweiz (CCC-CH) instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XS4ALL</span>

XS4ALL was an Internet service provider (ISP) in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the hackers club Hack-Tic by Felipe Rodriquez, Rop Gonggrijp, Paul Jongsma and Cor Bosman, while based in Amsterdam. It was the sixth provider in the Netherlands and the second company to offer Internet access to private individuals. Initially only offering dial-in services via modem and ISDN, it later expanded to offer dial-up access as well as ADSL, VDSL, and fiber-optic (FTTH) services as well as mobile internet. The name is a play on the English pronunciation of access for all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance</span> Intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population

Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, such as organizations like the NSA, but it may also be carried out by corporations. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is also often distinguished from targeted surveillance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information Commissioner's Office</span> Non-departmental public body

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independent regulatory office dealing with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 across the UK; and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and, to a limited extent, in Scotland.

Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for purposes of well-intent, while at the same time reducing it's potential for harm. It advocates for transparency, accountability, and limiting the collection of personal information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Privacy International</span>

Privacy International (PI) is a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. First formed in 1990, registered as a non-profit company in 2002 and as a charity in 2012, PI is based in London. Its current executive director, since 2012, is Dr Gus Hosein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital rights</span> Type of human and legal rights

Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particularly related to the protection and realization of existing rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression, in the context of digital technologies, especially the Internet. The laws of several countries recognize a right to Internet access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Digital Rights</span> Advocacy group

European Digital Rights (EDRi) is an international advocacy group headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. EDRi is a network collective of non-profit organizations (NGO), experts, advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights across the continent. As of October 2022, EDRi is made of more than 40 NGOs, as well as experts, advocates and academics from all across Europe.

Source protection, sometimes also referred to as source confidentiality or in the U.S. as the reporter's privilege, is a right accorded to journalists under the laws of many countries, as well as under international law. It prohibits authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source for a story. The right is based on a recognition that without a strong guarantee of anonymity, many would be deterred from coming forward and sharing information of public interests with journalists.

The Internet in Serbia is well developed. The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Serbia is .rs and .срб. (Cyrillic)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyberethics</span>

Cyber ethics is the philosophic study of ethics pertaining to computers, encompassing user behavior and what computers are programmed to do, and how this affects individuals and society. For years, various governments have enacted regulations while organizations have defined policies about cyberethics.

The Winston Smith Project is an informational and operational project for the defence of human rights on the Internet and in the digital era. The project was started in 1999 as an anonymous association and it is characterised by the absence of a physical reference identity.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet civil liberties.

Graduated response is a protocol or law, adopted in several countries, aimed at reducing unlawful file sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Quadrature du Net</span>

La Quadrature du Net is a French advocacy group that promotes digital rights and freedoms for its citizens. It advocates for French and European legislation to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge. La Quadrature du Net engages in public-policy debates concerning, for instance, freedom of speech, copyright, regulation of telecommunications and online privacy.

Digitalcourage – known until November 2012 as FoeBuD – is a German privacy and digital rights organisation. Under the motif of preserving "a world worth living in the digital age", Digitalcourage campaigns for civil and human rights, consumer protection, privacy, freedom of information and related issues. The group has links with organisations such as the German Working Group against Data Retention and the Chaos Computer Club, and it is a member of the umbrella organisation European Digital Rights.

The Clean IT Project is an online project initiated by the European Union, aiming to reduce or discourage online terrorism and further illegal activities via the internet. They aim to create a document that commits the internet industry to help governments discover content that incites acts of terrorism. The main facilitators that undertook this project were the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, and Spain. There are many more supporting EU members such as Hungary, Romania, and recently, Italy, but the main countries that have started the project are the 5 listed above.

On June 4, 2012, the Netherlands became the first country in Europe and the second in the world, after Chile, to enact a network neutrality law. The main net neutrality provision of this law requires that "Providers of public electronic communication networks used to provide Internet access services as well as providers of Internet access services will not hinder or slow down services or applications on the Internet".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship and surveillance in Europe</span>

This list of Internet censorship and surveillance in Europe provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship and surveillance in the Americas</span>

This list of Internet censorship and surveillance in the Americas provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries in the Americas.

References

  1. (in Dutch) "Notice en takedown" Archived July 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (Bits of Freedom archive, February 28, 2005)
  2. "The Multatuli project: research paper" Archived January 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine , (Sjoera Nas (Bits of Freedom), October 17, 2004)
  3. "Winners of the Dutch Big Brother Awards announced". Big Brother Awards website. Big Brother Awards. Retrieved 27 December 2012.