Privacy
We defend your right to privacy, the cornerstone for human rights in the digital age.
Press Releases
Access joins coalition for EU Naked Citizens campaign
Today a coalition of civil rights groups warned that citizens could be stripped of their right to privacy by dangerous EU Parliament proposals. The coalition — including Access, EDRi, Privacy International, Bits of Freedom, Panoptykon, La Quadrature du Net, Open Rights Group and Digitale Gesellschaft — released a report detailing the most dangerous amendments to the Data Protection Regulation and a website, nakedcitizens.eu where citizens can take direct action to contact Members of the European Parliament to demand that they protect their fundamental rights.…
25 April 2013
Blog
CISPA passes House despite Obama veto threat
The House of Representatives passed the privacy-invading Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by a vote of 288 – 127. The bill must still pass the Senate, and overcome a veto threat from Obama, before it becomes law.…
18 April 2013
Blog
U.S. “Internet Governance Bill” advances to the full House of Representatives with modifications
The proposed U.S. House of Representatives “Internet Governance Bill” was approved by the full Energy and Commerce Committee today and will now move on to the full House of Representatives. The revised draft of the bill would make it the “policy of the United States to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet.”…
17 April 2013
Blog
U.S. Congress deliberates keeping the internet “free of government control”
The proposed U.S. House of Representatives “Internet Governance Bill” has moved on to the full Energy and Commerce Committee after two days of markup and debate in the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. If passed into law, the bill would make it the “policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet.”
…12 April 2013
Blog
Leaseweb releases first transparency report
The Dutch hosting provider Leaseweb releases first transparency report, joining growing ranks of internet companies proactively disclosing their human rights impacts. The Leaseweb report provides insight into both the type of requests faced by hosting companies and provides a model for hosting companies seeking to undertake similar disclosure efforts.…
12 April 2013
Blog
AGM season begins: TeliaSonera accounts for rights violations
Marie Ehrlin, newly-elected Chairman of the Board, told reporters at TeliaSonera’s annual shareholder meeting that the company would bring in outside help to review their operations “country by country, transaction by transaction, and deal by deal” after a year of bruising human rights and corruption allegations. For some, this response is not enough.…
5 April 2013
Blog
With Google Glass, everyone can be Little Brother
It’s not just a style thing: you may have good reason to avoid the geek at the bar or in the park wearing Google’s latest invention, the wearable interface known as Glass. Despite its innocuous intent, the life-logging feature ‘Life Bits’ logs everyone who comes into direct contact with the Glass wearer, transforming them into a mobile recording device.…
3 April 2013
Blog
What the Microsoft transparency report does–and does not–tell us about Skype
The Access team has reviewed Microsoft’s transparency report and analyzed what it does–and does not–tell us about law enforcement requests for Skype data, as well as how it measures up to the demands in the January open letter from civil society.…
3 April 2013
Blog
Access Joins Obama Administration CISPA Veto Letter
Access has joined nearly forty other privacy advocates, civil society organizations, and companies like Reddit and Mozilla in signing a letter urging the Obama administration to renew its veto threat against the resurrected cybersecurity bill CISPA.…
20 March 2013
Blog
Telecom Industry Dialogue to collaborate with GNI on freedom of expression, privacy rights
Access welcomes the announcement of a new collaboration between the Telecommunications Industry Dialogue on Freedom of Expression and Privacy, and the Global Network Initiative. Beginning with a two-year trial, this collaboration holds the potential for meaningful engagement that yields more rights-respecting policies and actions in the telecoms sector.…
12 March 2013
Blog
Free Cookies: Strings attached to browsing raise costs for users
The recent introduction of Do-Not-Track legislation is again bringing the issue of online privacy back to the forefront in the United States. Given its mixed history, lack of widespread agreement on how to treat Do-Not-Track requests, and what sort of behavior constitutes tracking, the effectiveness of existing Do-Not-Track systems are far from adequate.…
11 March 2013
Blog
Peru surveillance bill threatens due process
Joining a growing number of governments proposing regulations that mandate pervasive surveillance, Peru recently introduced a draconian bill that accelerates the review of evidence related to criminal investigations in a way that contravenes the due process rights of Peruvians.…
7 March 2013
Blog
WSIS+10: Taking stock and driving the global internet policy agenda forward
Last week, a review marking ten years since the UN World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) kicked off in Paris at UNESCO. WSIS was a pair of UN-sponsored conferences held in 2003 in Geneva and 2005 in Tunis, aimed at bridging the digital divide and generally advancing the global discussion about the internet and ICTs. …
4 March 2013
Blog
AT&T wins Telco Hall of Shame Network Interference award
After two weeks of voting, the “winner” of our Telco Hall of Shame is AT&T, who was nominated for being BFF’s with the NSA. The US-based telecommunications company won with nearly a quarter of the the vote, followed by another American telco, Verizon, with 17%.
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28 February 2013
Blog
European Parliament committee approves opinion hostile to user privacy
The Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE) Committee of the European Parliament recently voted through its Opinion on the Data Protection Regulation, sending a clear message to European citizens that a majority of the Committee believes the interests of large corporations should trump the protection of their fundamental right to privacy.…
27 February 2013
Blog
Privacy under siege: Unprecedented lobby efforts against the Regulation are revealed
As the European Parliament debates new data protection reforms,US technology companies have arrived in Brussels to commence an unprecedented lobbying effort aimed at preventing strong regulation and weakening existing standards. Most troublingly, some of the draft legislative proposals have been copied and pasted directly from lobbying documents, evidence of the immense influence of US giants like Google and Amazon on European policy.…
26 February 2013