Tag: RightsCon

This past March, people from all over the world gathered in San Francisco for RightsCon. Access’ annual conference brings together activists, corporate leaders, programmers, representatives from various governments, and experts in law and policy working on a range of issues at the intersection of technology and human rights.

Access is pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 Access Innovation Prize at the RightsCon evening reception on March 4th. There were two awards this year, a $50,000 Endpoint Security Award and a $10,000 Facebook Award.

Rule of law, legitimate purpose, non-arbitrariness, competent authority, oversight, transparency, and democratic accountability become US policy

RightsCon Silicon Valley 2014 is behind us and it was an overwhelming success! A big thanks goes out to all our expert speakers and sponsors and a special shout out to all RightsCon 2014 attendees for bringing the conference to life!

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.

After months of planning and preparing, we’re ready to kick off RightsCon Silicon Valley 2014, the premier gathering of tech policy leaders, entrepreneurs, and digital rights defenders from around the world. I’m in awe of the amazing lineup of speakers and experts, and we want to make sure you have access to them too!