ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Warns against voluntary rating standards for online content. Believes labelling could negate the free-speech victory won in the Communications Decency Act decision. Anonymizer Focuses on privacy issues - Click on "who are you?" for a useful explanation of precisely what information is transmitted by you to a host server whenever you visit a website. British Chamber of Commerce Report on "The Economic Impact of The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill" "The RIP Bill as it stands is entirely inadequate as a mechanism to achieve efficient and reasonable interception and surveillance Its effect is likely to be loss of confidence in e-commerce, unacceptable costs to business and to the UK economy, confusion and uncertainty at numerous levels of business activity, and an onerous imposition on the rights of individuals.The justification for the Bill has been established to a large extent on anecdote and rhetoric." British Intelligence Service MI5 building new centre for email interception (1.5.2000) Centre for Democracy and Technology Substantial US site strongly advocating free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CIA comments officially on Echelon "There have been recent allegations that the Intelligence Community through NSA has improperly directed our SIGINT capabilities against the private conversations of US persons. That is not the case." Of course Echelon is about email interception not "conversations" but never mind. Charter 88 Campaign for Democracy CIEC (The Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition) Came together to oppose the US Congress' first attempt to regulate content on the Internet, the Communications Decency Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutional on June 26, 1997. CRL (Cyber-Rights&Liberties) Led by Mr. Yaman Akdeniz makes case for the shortcomings in the inclusiveness of IWF and objects to the presumption that ratings are a good thing without prior, all inclusive, transparent consultation. Cryptome.org/ Cryptome says it welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security and intelligence -- open, secret and classified documents Digital Freedom Network Showing how encrypted messages are communicated as wallpaper in countries where the state have the right to demand access to encrypted messages - so that even sending in PGP needs to be dsiguised - illustrates the futility of the UK's RIP bill in achieving it's stated objectives. DTI (UK Government's Dep't of Trade and Industry) Full text of E-commerce draft bill Echelon Watch ACLU site which alleges that "Echelon is perhaps the most powerful intelligence gathering organization in the world" Electronic Frontier Foundation "Protecting rights and promoting freedom in the electronic fronteer" Critical commentary by Esther Dyson on the ratings proposal (Sept. 10, 1999) FTC (Federal Trade Commission- USA) COPPA (The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) went into effect on April 21st 2000 in the United States. Their web site ftc.gov/kidsprivacy provides the official position on this and some guidence and advice to children, parents and web professionals alike. GILC Global Internet Liberty Campaign - a collection of a substantial number of civil Liberty groups opposed to both Ratings and Filtering. Hansard House of Commons Debates Home Office Comments "Myths and Misunderstandings" on the highly unpopular RIP Bill Example: "surveillance will only be permitted for the purposes specified by the Bill. These fall within the purposes listed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, the surveillance must be believed to be necessary; and it must be proportionate to what it aims to achieve. Any contravention of these requirements would be unlawful, and subject to challenge in court." House of Commons publications on the Internet ICRA Non-profit organisation founded by the Bertelsmann foundation - membership $25,000 per head - makes the case for world players in telecommunications, multi-media, Internet service and content industries to join a high-profile effort to "simultaneously preserve free speech and protect children on-line." Owns RSACi (ratings) copyrights. INCORE Funded by the European Commission and set up by a group of European organisations with a common interest in industry self-regulation and rating of Internet content. It is now focused on a project which aims to create a generic rating and filtering system suitable for European users. InHope Association Organisation supported by EU whose members are providers of Internet Hotline Services dealing with illegal content on the web.Their statement reads: "The INHOPE Association exists to facilitate co-operation between European Internet Hotline providers. To eliminate child pornography from the Internet and protect young people from harmful and illegal uses of the Internet whilst preserving Freedom of the Internet. A commitment to positive uses of the Internet Shared responsibility for protection of young people by government, educators, parents and the Internet industry ISPA UK (Internet Service Providers Association) Important body promoting self-regulation. IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) The pro-active UK body for ICRA, including a hotLine to report cyber-crime. Strongly favours a voluntary ratings system, whilst doing a difficult high wire act between the arguments for regulation and the civil liberties difficulties such implementation could bring. Enjoys broad support of Government and ISPs. DTI to report shortly on their activities. Liberty UK Human Rights Organisation incorporating National Council for Civil Liberties. Has problems both with legislation and self-regulation. Netparents.org Public awareness and education campaign sponsored by a broad-based coalition of non-profits, education groups, and corporations concerned with"providing children with a safe and rewarding experience online". Also offers info' on filtering software. Be aware such software can be rendered useless by the street wise - see Peacefire.org Netwatch Netscape's official view on the issue... in the broad strokes not dissimilar to that held by MicroSoft vis a vis their Internet Explorer (IE) browser. "Nowhere to Hide" Duncan Campbell Interesting piece on the burgeoning e-mail surveillance practices of various Governments. Peacefire.org US youth, civil liberties grouping who say filtering and ratings can't work and who post a daily site of an honourable organisation incorrectly banned due to the alleged crudities of the blocking mechanisms of cyber-filters created by the likes of CyberSitter and other "blocking" software. PICS (Platform for Internet Content Standards) W3.org came up with this. The PICSTM specification enables labels i.e. meta tag data, to be associated with Internet content. It was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing and privacy. The PICS platform is one on which other rating services and filtering software have been built. Microsoft IE employs PICS The Privacy Foundation US organistion. Sees it's It's prime function to educate the public about matters which may pose a threat to personal privacy. RIP to civil liberties and the e-business revolution Privacy on the net: special report by The Observer journalist John Naughton July 16, 2000. To break with tradition for this page and be partisan for a moment, this offers more evidence, as if more were needed, that Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw has zero grasp of even the first rudimentary ideas about what a democracy is supposed to be about. If you want to read an even more opinionated piece try mine RIP slammed in New York Times The RIP Act Full text of this widely criticized act. RSAC The clear front runner for a Voluntary Ratings system. Watch the number of sites (currently a mere 100,000 ) registering with them go ballistic in the next couple of years as web content providers like AOL and MSN start to register their sites. Report First working Group Irish Gov't (in .pdf format) Report on Illegal and harmful use of the Internet. Good first base for anyone who wants to get up to speed on the broad sweep of much official thinking i.e. that self-regulation is preferable to legislation but that some form of regulation is nevertheless necessary. This seems to be the broadly adopted line of both industry and gov't since the failure of the Communications Decency Act in the US to get past constitutional issues like the first amendment. SafeWeb Anonymous web surfing - Claims to provide the first free, completely private and secure way to surf the Web anywhere, anytime. Stand.org.uk Campaigning for Safe e-commerce legislation. Interesting lobby group who say UK Home Secretary Jack "Benito" Straw is about to get it badly it wrong yet again. Operation Dear Jack goes something like this: The Electronic Commerce Bill would make it a crime to fail to give up the decryption key to a message if a policeman thinks you've got it. If you haven't got it, it is up to you to prove you haven't. If you can't prove it, you would be liable for 2 years in jail. Tim Berners Lee, regarded as the father of the internet, and a figure of considerable moral authority, has launched a blistering attack on this piece of legislation currently (11.6.00) going through the House of Lords- more info at www.fipr.org/rip Stealth Attack on Privacy Interesting assessment of a problematic piece of US legislation by US author and First Amendment authority Nat Hentoff Truste.org All matters relating to privacy online and best practice, with a welter of heavyweight corporate sponsors. Further recommended reading How e-mail is traced Wired Article Carnivore eats anything Latest on FBI's controversial E-mail surveillance tool Clandestine Conversations - CIA in the News. Try and pick the bones out of this. German Court Clears Compuserve Net chief of child porn charges Epic and ACLU legal challenge to FBI Wiretap rules CNN: Beyond the Communications Decency Act CNET: Global Net ratings committee emerges from Munich summit UK Gov't draft: The Electronic Commerce Bill Wired: Article about ACLU opposition to ratings Boston Globe: Review of Internet Watchdog software NUA Internet Surveys: Filtering now a Business Liability Issue

last updated 9.9.2001