The Foundation for Information Policy Research is a UK-based think tank that studies the interaction between information technology and government, business and civil society. [1] It has been described by academics as "the leading think-tank on information policy issues in Britain." [2] . Although still registered at Companies House, it hasn't published anything since 2017. [3] [4]
Established in May 1998, the organisation is a non-profit company limited by guarantee. [1] Its policy is governed by an independent board of trustees in consultation with an advisory council.
In 2008, FIPR argued that a planned partnership between telecom group BT and targeted advertising Phorm technology was illegal under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. [5]
FIPR's trustees have variously been: Professor Ross Anderson (chair), Nicholas Bohm (general counsel), Dr. Richard Clayton (treasurer), Fleur Fisher and Jim Norton. [1]
Members of the Advisory Council have included Joanna Bryson, Shami Chakrabarti, Alan Cox, Jon Crowcroft, Lilian Edwards, Maurice Frankel, Becky Hogge, Douwe Korff, Mark Littlewood, Steven Murdoch, Danny Quah, Martyn Thomas, Paul Whitehouse, Wendy M. Grossman, and Phil Zimmermann. [1]
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Douwe Korff has been professor of international law at London Metropolitan University since 2002. He is a Dutch comparative and international lawyer, specialising in human rights and data protection. In the 1970s, he graduated from the Free University in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and was researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. In the 1980s, he carried out human rights research at the Max Planck Institutes for comparative and international criminal law and for comparative and international public law in Freiburg im Breisgau and Heidelberg, Germany. In the 1990s, he taught international law and human rights at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and the European Convention on Human Rights at the University of Essex, UK. In 2006, he was visiting professor at the Law faculty of the University of Rijeka, Croatia.
The British Nutrition Foundation is a British registered charity and company limited by guarantee that works to share scientific knowledge and advice on diet, physical activity and health.
Daniel William Finkelstein, Baron Finkelstein, is a British journalist, author, political advisor and politician. He is a former executive editor of The Times, where he remains a weekly political columnist, and has been a regular columnist at The Jewish Chronicle since 2010. Finkelstein was formerly an advisor to Prime Minister John Major and leader of the Conservative Party William Hague. Since 2013 he has sat as a Conservative Peer of the House of Lords.
Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation organisation.
Sir John Menzies Low, CBE, CEng, FRSA is an international civil society leader, with a commercial background in science, technology and engineering. From 2007 to 2020, he was group chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). He was previously the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). Since 2022, John has been Chair of JTL, the leading training provider for the Building Services Engineering sector.
Phorm, formerly known as 121Media, was a digital technology company known for its contextual advertising software. Phorm was incorporated in Delaware, United States, but relocated to Singapore as Phorm Corporation (Singapore) Ltd in 2012. Founded in 2002, the company originally distributed programs that were considered spyware, from which they made millions of dollars in revenue. It stopped distributing those programs after complaints from groups in the United States and Canada, and announced it was talking with several United Kingdom Internet service providers (ISPs) to deliver targeted advertising based on the websites that users visited. Phorm partnered with ISPs Oi, Telefonica in Brazil, Romtelecom in Romania, and TTNet in Turkey. In June 2012, Phorm made an unsuccessful attempt to raise £20 million for a 20% stake in its Chinese subsidiary.
Kip Meek, full name Kingsley John Neville Meek, is a British businessperson specialising in media and telecommunication.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom whose aims are to challenge what it calls "extremely damaging and harmful policies" envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming. The GWPF, and some of its prominent members individually, have been characterised as practising and promoting climate change denial.
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55 Tufton Street is a four-storey Georgian-era townhouse on historic Tufton Street, in Westminster, London, owned by businessman Richard Smith. Since the 2010s the building has hosted a network of libertarian lobby groups and think tanks related to pro-Brexit, climate science denial and other fossil-fuel lobby groups. Some of the organisations it houses have close connections with those at 57 Tufton Street next door, including the Centre for Policy Studies and CapX.