Blog
Statement from detained Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah
Today, Access kicked off the third installation of our RightsCon conference series in San Francisco, with more than 600 people from 375 organizations and comapnies in attendance, representing 50 countries. One person who was not here is Alaa Abd El Fattah, of Egypt.
Alaa joined us at the first RightsCon, in 2011, as a keynote speaker on the relationship – often complex – among technology, activism, and true social justice. When he left RightsCon, he flew straight back to Egypt, to serve an unjust, politically motivated prison sentence.
Today, he is in prison again — again, without justice or cause. His family shared the following statement with us to share today.…
3 March 2014
Blog
The day the world fought back
Today, February 11th, internet users around the world are standing together. Today, individuals, civil society organizations, and thousands of websites will let the world’s governments know that we reject global mass surveillance at home and overseas. Today, we fight back.
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11 February 2014
Blog
Call for the release of Alaa Abd El Fattah and all those unjustly detained in Egypt
The military “interim government” in Egypt is cracking down on any meaningful form of assembly, association, or opposition. Following the passage of a November 2013 law banning peaceful protest, dozens of activists and organizers have been sent to prison. Among them is Alaa Abd El Fattah, software guru, blogger and political activist. We join dozens of other civil society organizations in calling for the release of Alaa and all those unjustly detained in Egypt.…
23 January 2014
Blog
Advocates and digital rights defenders reject Obama’s ‘whitewash’ of intrusive spying regime
After President Obama today announced changes to the NSA’s mass surveillance programs, civil liberties groups expressed skepticism and concern over continued bulk collection. Groups including Access, Demand Progress, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Free Press and ThoughtWorks vowed to continue organizing “The Day We Fight Back” a day of international activism on February 11, 2014 to demonstrate widespread opposition to the spying regime.…
17 January 2014
Blog
Further action needed for real surveillance reform
Today, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech laying out proposed reforms to the U.S. National Security Administration’s (NSA) mass surveillance programs. In his speech, the President called for reform to the current bulk telephony metadata programs conducted under Section 215, including the introduction of judicial review; guidance and limits on the use of the data of non-U.S. persons; and the creation of improved oversight at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. …
17 January 2014
Blog
Access applauds Verizon decision to break ranks in favor of transparency
Access welcomes today’s news that Verizon Communications has broken ranks with telcos globally by announcing that it will issue a transparency report. It will be the first telco to do so. We call on all telcos to release regular, detailed transparency reports: Anything less is a failure of their human rights obligations and their investors’ expectations.
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19 December 2013
Blog
Access statement on the President’s Review Group report on NSA surveillance
This afternoon the White House released “Liberty and Security in a Changing World,” the report and recommendations of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. This five-person task force was convened by President Obama to assess the NSA’s communications surveillance programs and provide recommendations on reform.…
18 December 2013
Blog
StopWatchingUs Rally Weekend: Calendar of Events
The StopWatchingUs coalition, is hosting a Lobby Day and Rally on Saturday October 26th, the anniversary of the landmark surveillance legislation the USA PATRIOT Act. We’ll be joining our coalition members and thousands of citizens to march to Capitol Hill…
24 October 2013
Blog
Coalition of More Than 80 Organizations and Companies Call on U.S. Congress to End NSA Spying
On Tuesday, Access and more than 80 organizations and internet companies sent a letter to Congress demanding an immediate halt to and investigation of the U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Other signatories include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla, and reddit.
…11 June 2013
Blog
Massive US surveillance program exposed
Update: The initial disclosure by Greenwald and the Guardian has since been followed by reports from, first from the Washington Post and followed by the New York Times, Guardian, and Wall Street Journal confirming and dramatically enlarging the scope of…
6 June 2013
Blog
As Istanbul protests continue, government turns off live camera feeds from Taksim
As Istanbul’s Taksim Square swelled with protesters on Friday night, local authorities seemingly disabled livestreams from the municipality’s ‘Turistik Kameralar,’ or Tourist Cameras, that showed views of the plaza. By scraping the feed, Access was able to identify when the camera was disabled, as well as evidence that seems to prove that the feeds were disabled deliberately, rather than collapsing under ‘viewer load.’…
1 June 2013
Blog
Message to Malaysian regulators: keep the internet open
Last week, we documented network interference in Malaysia: local internet service providers (ISPs) were obstructing the free flow of traffic from selected sites hosting opposition political content, right ahead of a critical election. We asked the Access community to demand accountability from the Malaysian government, and ensure the Malaysian internet stayed free and open. Thousands of members from more than 60 countries signed a petition telling the MCMC to keep Malaysia online–and we delivered that petition. On Sunday, May 5th, in the midst of the elections, we wrote to Sharil Tarmizi, head of the MCMC, to remind them that the world was watching: network interference is an unacceptable violation of Malaysians’ rights. …
6 May 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
Cybersecurity bill CISPA is back: same privacy concerns, more political support
CISPA, the ill-conceived piece of US legislation on information sharing and cybersecurity, is back. Yesterday, the Intelligence Committee of the US House of Representatives held a hearing on cybersecurity, under the banner of “Advanced Threats Facing Our Nation.” The committee, chaired by Republican congressman Mike Rogers, heard testimony from representatives of the financial, energy, corporate, and security industries. No representative of the civil liberties or privacy community was invited to testify.…
15 February 2013