Tag: Digital rights

Rights groups won a major victory for free expression in Malaysia as a High Court lifted a three-month ban on The Edge Media Group. The decision follows months of sustained pressure by local advocacy groups in Malaysia and international organizations including Access Now. Sarawak Report, another major media organization in Malaysia, remains blocked.

Several weeks back, Access announced the launch of the Access Grants program, highlighting the foundational work we’ve done over the last several months. We’ve been working hard to get ready to launch, and wanted to update the community on some exciting new developments.

Vodafone employees accessed journalist Natalie O’Brien’s call and text records in 2011, after she wrote reports about problems with the company’s Siebel security system. According to a leaked email, Vodafone managers asked employees to use “any means available” to uncover the source of O’Brien’s information. Vodafone commissioned an investigation by a top accounting firm, the results of which it refuses to release, while denying any “improper behavior.” However, after public pressure intensified this week, Vodafone reversed course and has asked federal police to investigate. We call on Vodafone to cooperate fully with investigators, release the independent report it commissioned, publicly explain what actions the company took after it became aware of the breach, and promise non-repetition. The company should strive to implement encryption, including end-to-end encryption, which would prevent employees from being able to access user data like this in the future.

On Tuesday 22 September, Access will hold an apéro on the Future of the Internet where our Brussels team and civil society representatives will meet with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and their staff.

A United Nations board of security experts representing 20 governments has released a report critical to the future of the internet. This iterative report aims to identify areas of consensus and prevent conflict between nation states. The report fails to mention encryption, and includes underwhelming statements about rights online. However, it does help to establish boundaries for proper state behavior that are critical to maintaining a secure and free internet.

RightsCon Southeast Asia closed after another jam-packed day of events and demos of exciting tech tools. More than 500 participants joined together to learn, to contribute, and to achieve real world outcomes.

In January 2015, heads of state met at the 24th African Union Summit to discuss the “African Union Agenda 2063” with the goal of enabling “a continent on equal footing with the rest of the world as an information society.” While Access applauds the human rights protections enshrined in the convention, we are deeply troubled by draft legislation that has emerged across the continent that tramples rights in the name of implementing the convention.

Today, the White House will hold its Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection. While improved digital hygiene is critically important, the information-sharing proposals offered by Congress and President Obama so far place user privacy at risk while being of questionable utility for improving digital security.

In a worrying move against freedom of expression on the internet, Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa publicly shamed critics for their statements on social networks and asked his supporters to attack them online. Digital rights organizations worldwide, including Access, issued this statement condemning the president’s disturbing reaction.

Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper introduced the Cyber Threat Sharing Act of 2015, a new bill to authorize the public/private dissemination of cybersecurity-related information. The legislation’s limitations on the type of information that can be shared are not enough to protect user privacy. Access is calling on the U.S. Congress not to consider information-sharing legislation–which could ostensibly create new surveillance authorities under the guise of cybersecurity–until existing surveillance authorities are adequately reformed.