<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ORG_policy_update/2015-w27">https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ORG_policy_update/2015-w27</a><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">
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<p lang="en-US"><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">This is ORG's
Policy Update for the week beginning 26/06/2015.</font></p></div>
</div>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Launch_of_Open_Rights_Group_Birmingham"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Launch of Open Rights Group
Birmingham</font></h2>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">On Wednesday, July 8th, Open
Rights Group Birmingham will be launched with its first meeting. The
<a href="http://www.meetup.com/ORG-Birmingham/events/223623916/" target="_blank">meet-up</a>
will be a chance for people interested in digital rights to figure
out how they can work to promote and protect digital rights in
Birmingham and beyond. Feel free to <a href="https://openrightsgroupbirmingham.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/come-along-to-the-1st-ever-open-rights-group-birmingham-meet-up/" target="_blank">share
this blogpost</a> to help us make a success out of this event. </font>
</p>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_National_Developments"></a><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">National
Developments</font></h2>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_GHCQ_spied_on_Amnesty_International"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">GHCQ spied on Amnesty
International</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Investigatory_Powers_Tribunal" target="_blank">Investigatory
Powers Tribunal</a>, a tribunal in charge of the oversight over
operations of interception of data by UK authorities, notified
Amnesty International on July 1st that the human rights organisation
had been spied on by the <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Government_Communications_Headquarters" target="_blank">Government
Communications Headquarters</a> (GCHQ). </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The IPT was asked by ten
NGOs to assert whether they had been unlawfully spied on by UK
intelligence agencies. In <a href="http://www.ipt-uk.com/docs/Final%20_Liberty_Ors_Open_Determination.pdf" target="_blank">its
judgment</a> delivered 2 weeks ago, the Tribunal asserted that
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and South African
Legal Resources Centre were indeed spied on in an unlawful manner by
the GCHQ, while the other NGOs, including Amnesty International, were
not. It then <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/01/major-reversal-british-tribunal-confirms-surveillance-amnesty-international-violated-rights/" target="_blank">admitted
its mistake</a> and informed Amnesty that they had been a target,
while EIPR was, in fact, not targeted. The IPT's email does not
indicate when, how long and why the NGO was spied on. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The first judgment pushed
several NGOs to demand an explanation from the
Secretary of State
for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/blog/2015/07/01/access-joins-letter-to-uk-officials-criticizing-gchq-spying-on-human-rights" target="_blank">in
an open letter</a>, and this rectification sparked outrage once
again. Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General,
<a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/uk-surveillance-tribunal-reveals-the-government-spied-on-amnesty-international" target="_blank">stated</a>
that '”it’s outrageous that what has been often presented as
being the domain of despotic rulers has been occurring on British
soil, by the British government” , while Eric King, deputy director
of Privacy International, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/01/gchq-spied-amnesty-international-tribunal-email" target="_blank">made
the case</a> that “our [the British] system of oversight and remedy
has fundamentally failed". </font>
</p>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Ministry_of_Defence_requested_access_to_sensitive_data_on_schoolchildren_to_target_its_marketing_for_the_army"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Ministry of Defence requested
access to sensitive data on schoolchildren to target its marketing
for the army</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Following the release of a
Department for Education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-requests-received" target="_blank">report</a>
into requests to access the National Pupil Database, we <a href="http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/06/ministry-of-defence-sought-access-to-sensitive-data-about-children-in-england/" target="_blank">learned
that</a> the Ministry of Defence (MoD) made one of these requests.
The national database includes very personal informations, including
full name, address, ethnicity or details of academic progress of
every students in England. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The MoD refuses to comment
on the matter, but the transparency reports states that it wanted the
data to “use targeted messaging to better inform young people of
the career opportunities open to them in the Army (Regular and
Reserve)”. This falls outside the scope of the legitimate claim for
accessing the database, replied the Department of Education, which
then denied the request. Owen Everett, from the NGO ForceWatch, <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/mod-makes-inappropriate-request-by-mistake/" target="_blank">told
Schoolsweek</a> that it is not a coincidence that this request came “
at a time when Army recruitment continues to be struggling, and when
the armed forces policy of recruiting 16 and 17 year-olds is shortly
to be challenged in a judicial review”. </font>
</p>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Departmental_and_Ministerial_Announcement"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Departmental and Ministerial
Announcement</font></h2>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Prime_Minister_reasserts_plan_to_access_encrypted_communications"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Prime Minister reasserts plan
to access encrypted communications</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Responding to a question by
Conservative MP David Bellingham on June 29th, the Prime Minister
David Cameron declared that "we must look at all the new media
being produced and ensure that, in every case, we are able, […] on
the signature of a warrant, to get to the bottom of what is going
on”. He also asserted that the government was “urging social
media companies to work with us and help us deal with terrorism”.
It is not the first time that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/queens-speech/11634567/Google-and-Whatsapp-will-be-forced-to-hand-messages-to-MI5.html" target="_blank">he
has talked about</a> the need to access encrypted communications but
his announcements so far have been lacking any explanation of how
this could work without weakening Internet security for all. Since
banning encryption would be an impractical choice, it is likely that
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/01/encryption-wont-work-if-it-has-a-back-door-only-the-good-guys-have-keys-to-" target="_blank">the
government would require</a> software companies to provide backdoors
in their software and ask for greater "cooperation". </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">This statement comes despite
the news that several technology companies <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ORG_policy_update/2015-w23#Companies_could_leave_the_United_Kingdom_if_backdoors_in_encryption_are_made_mandatory" target="_blank">have
already stated</a> they would leave the UK if encryption is weakened,
and only one month after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
freedom of expression's <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/CallForSubmission.aspx" target="_blank">report</a>
making a strong case for encryption, which “enables individuals to
exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression in the
digital age”. </font>
</p>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_European_Union"></a><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">European
Union</font></h2>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_European_institutions_strike_a_deal_to_end_to_data_roaming_charges_but_undermines_net_neutrality"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">European institutions strike a
deal to end to data roaming charges but undermines net neutrality</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">After two years of
negotiations between the European institutions, a deal has been
struck on on the Telecoms Single Market Regulation. But while <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-5275_en.htm" target="_blank">the
end of data roaming charges</a> in July 2017 is a victory for the
<a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/European_Parliament" target="_blank">Parliament</a>
and for consumers, <a href="https://edri.org/council-confirms-it-wants-to-trade-net-neutrality-for-end-of-roaming-charges/" target="_blank">digital
rights activists</a> fear that this success came at the expense of
net neutrality. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Indeed, while the
<a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/European_Commission" target="_blank">Commission's</a>
<a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-5275_en.htm" target="_blank">fact
sheet</a> hails the enshrinement of net neutrality into law, European
digital rights group <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/EDRi" target="_blank">EDRi</a>
<a href="https://edri.org/blurry-ambiguous-net-neutrality-deal-is-an-abdication-of-responsibility/" target="_blank">warns
against</a> the blurriness of the text, which means that we will have
to wait for courts and regulators to provide their meaning of it. The
text statutes that “fast lane” services can only be created if
“necessary”, but it remains extremely broad on its definition of
“necessary”. As the explanatory notes still have to be finalised
in the next few days, there is still a chance that the final text
will be closer to the proposition of the Parliament, which was very
well-received by digital rights activists, but which has been
undermined by the <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/European_Council" target="_blank">Council</a>.
However, commentators <a href="http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2015/06/eu-plans-to-destroy-net-neutrality-by-allowing-internet-fast-lanes/" target="_blank">fear</a>
the end of net neutrality in Europe and the beginning of a two-tier
Internet. </font>
</p>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Parliament.27s_vote_on_copyright_could_endanger_Freedom_of_panorama"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Parliament's vote on copyright
could endanger Freedom of panorama</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The European Parliament is
to vote on July 8th on <a href="https://juliareda.eu/2015/06/reda-report-adopted-a-turning-point-in-the-copyright-debate/" target="_blank">the
report</a> written by the Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda on the
implementation of the current copyright legislation enforced at the
European level. The report is not a binding legal text but it will
indicate the position of the Parliament on copyright, just a few
months before the European Commission proposes a new text on
copyright. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">A particular point has drawn
a lot of attention this week, and even <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-save-the-freedom-of-photography-savefop-europarl-en" target="_blank">prompted
a petition</a> that received more than 200,000 supporters. Freedom of
panorama, the right to use pictures of buildings, sculptures or views
in the public domain without asking the owner of the copyright, is
currently in place in most Member States. However, if the report is
adopted, following an amendment to the report written by Jean-Marie
Cavada, a MEP of the European Liberal & Democrats party, <a href="https://juliareda.eu/2015/06/fop-under-threat/" target="_blank">the
use of such pictures could be illegal</a> other than for personal
purposes. This endangers artistic creations, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/11695345/Freedom-of-panorama-EU-proposal-could-mean-holiday-snaps-breach-copyright.html" target="_blank">creates
a grey area</a> on the publication of those pictures on social
network and would mean that <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015" target="_blank">Wikipedia,
for example</a>, could no longer use images of famous monuments. </font>
</p>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_The_European_Parliament_will_vote_its_position_on_TTIP_next_week.2C_as_a_compromise_on_ISDS_has_been_found"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The European Parliament will
vote its position on TTIP next week, as a compromise on ISDS has been
found</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The European Parliament's
vote on its recommendations to the negotiation of the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (<a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/TTIP" target="_blank">TTIP</a>)
will <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/parliament-moves-ahead-on-ttip-deal/" target="_blank">take
place next week</a>. Officially, the vote had been postponed so that
the enormous amount of amendments could be examined, but commentators
understood the decision of the European Parliament's president,
Martin Schultz, as a way to make sure that his party, the Socialist &
Democrats, could reach an internal agreement on the Investor-State
Dispute Settlement provision (ISDS). This provision would allow for
the creation of ad hoc international tribunals in which a company
could sue a state if its benefits were endangered by the state's
policy. This particular mechanism has attracted a lot of attention
and criticism from citizens and civil right groups, denouncing a blow
to sovereignty. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The International Trade
Committee of the Parliament <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/sections/trade-society/parliaments-ttip-vote-cleared-sd-new-isds-315912" target="_blank">found
a compromise</a> by adopting an amendment calling for the creation of
international tribunals if need be, but stating that “private
interests cannot undermine public policy objectives”. This should
allow the European Commission room for negotiating the creation of
international tribunals, which the US adamantly demands, while
abating fears that they threaten the rule of law. National
Parliaments will have the power to veto TTIP eventually, and some of
them have <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/sections/trade-society/france-may-block-eu-canada-trade-deal-over-isds-315911" target="_blank">already
taken strong stance</a> against ISDS mechanisms. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The next rounds of
negotiations over TTIP will take place mid-July in Brussels. The US
administration aims at <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/us-trade-vote-ttip-obama/" target="_blank">finishing
it next year</a>. </font>
</p>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_International_Developments"></a><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">International
Developments</font></h2>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_The_Intercept_sheds_light_on_the_NSA_XKEYSCORE_programme"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The Intercept sheds light on
the NSA XKEYSCORE programme</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The Intercept, an online
newspaper with a focus on revelations on mass surveillance after the
Snowden's revelations, issued a series of article on one of the
<a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/w/index.php?title=National_Security_Agency%5CNational_Security_Agency%27s&action=edit&redlink=1" target="_blank">National
Security Agency\National Security Agency's</a> (NSA) key programmes,
XKEYSCORE. Thanks to 48 top-secret documents, it highlights the
“astonishing[...] reach and potency of XKEYSCORE as a surveillance
instrument”. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/01/nsas-google-worlds-private-communications/" target="_blank">first
article</a> examines how XKEYSCORE captures traffic from fiber optic
cables to collect and store all traffic for several days. This is not
only emails and web-browsing traffic but also pictures, voice calls,
traffic from popular social media (described as a “great starting
point” for research) or webcam photos. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">NSA agents, as well as
similar organisations of the so-called Five-Eyes countries (UK,
Canada, New Zealand, Australia), have access to “tens of billions
of records”. Internet users are uniquely identified thanks to their
browser cookies, and agents can conduct thorough surveillance
searches “simply by entering entering a person's email address,
telephone number, name or other identifying data” in a search
engine described as user-friendly and compared to Google. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The U.S. government has
often argued that it needs these programs to ensure the security of
its citizens, and these documents show that indeed it was used
against terrorists. But the article shows there was a much larger
scope. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Auditing are conducted to
ensure that the searches do not target citizens from the United
States, and even sometimes citizens from the Five-Eyes countries, but
whistleblower Edward Snowden <a href="http://computefest.seas.harvard.edu/symposium" target="_blank">declared
in January</a> that the programme is in fact “free from any
meaningful oversight”. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">The <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/02/look-under-hood-xkeyscore/" target="_blank">second
article</a> examined the overall lack of security of the program,
with hardware scattered all around the world, “badly designed
software” and poor security practices such as accounts' sharing. In
the end, the Intercept concludes that “if XKEYSCORE development has
continued at a similar pace over the last six years, it’s
likely considerably more powerful today.” </font>
</p>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Internet_Companies"></a><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Internet
Companies</font></h2>
<h3><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_Google_applies_right_to_be_forgotten_worldwide_for_.E2.80.9Crevenge_porn.E2.80.9D_but_not_for_other_search_queries"></a>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Google applies right to be
forgotten worldwide for “revenge porn” but not for other search
queries</font></h3>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Google announced in a <a href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.be/2015/06/revenge-porn-and-search.html" target="_blank">blog
post</a> that it would de-index links to “revenge porn”, naked
pictures of videos of people published online without their consent,
on the grounds that these images are “intensely personal and
emotionally damaging”. </font>
</p>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">At the same time, Google
could be in legal trouble if it doesn't comply with the French data
protection authority's (CNIL) <a href="http://www.cnil.fr/linstitution/actualite/article/article/cnil-orders-google-to-comply-with-the-french-data-protection-act-within-three-months/" target="_blank">request
to apply</a> the right to be forgotten worldwide. Since a European
Court of Justice judgment last year, search engines have to de-index
links resulting for nominal search queries if they are “irrelevant
or outdated”. However, the American company only enforces the right
to be forgotten on its European domains (such as <a href="http://google.co.uk" target="_blank">google.co.uk</a>), but
not globally (such as <a href="http://google.com" target="_blank">google.com</a>). Google has now <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/economie/2015/06/26/dereferencement-google-a-demande-a-la-cnil-une-prorogation-du-delai-de-deux-semaines_1338121" target="_blank">less
than two weeks</a> to apply the right globally before facing an heavy
fine from the CNIL. </font>
</p>
<p><br><br>
</p>
<h2><a name="14e5445392bb45b8_ORG_Media_coverage"></a><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">ORG
Media coverage</font></h2>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">See <a href="https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/ORG_Press_Coverage" target="_blank">ORG
Press Coverage</a> for full details. </font>
</p>
<dt><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">2015-06-26 – LibDemVoice
- <a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/willie-rennie-and-greens-patrick-harvie-support-launch-of-open-rights-group-scotland-46568.html" target="_blank">Willie
Rennie and Greens’ Patrick Harvie support launch of Open Rights
Group Scotland</a> </font>
</dt><dd>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Author: Caron Lindsay </font>
</dd><dd style="margin-bottom:0.2in">
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Summary: Article covering the
launch of Open Rights Group Scotland </font>
</dd><dt>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">2015-06-29 – The Courier -
<a href="http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/calls-for-scotland-to-lead-the-way-with-digital-magna-carta-1.887132" target="_blank">Calls
for Scotland to lead the way with ‘digital Magna Carta’</a> </font>
</dt><dd>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Author: David Martin </font>
</dd><dd style="margin-bottom:0.2in">
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Summary: Pol Clementsmith,
Scotland Officer for Open Rights Group, calls for a “digital Magna
Carta” </font>
</dd><dt>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">2015-06-29 – V3 - <a href="http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2415268/european-net-neutrality-at-threat-warn-groups" target="_blank">European
net neutrality under threat, warn rights groups</a> </font>
</dt><dd>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Author: Dave Neal </font>
</dd><dd style="margin-bottom:0.2in">
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Summary: Open Rights Group
encourage citizens to contact their MEP to protect net neutrality </font>
</dd><dt>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">2015-06-29 – Business Insider
- <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/david-cameron-encryption-back-doors-iphone-whatsapp-2015-7?r=US" target="_blank">David
Cameron is going to try and ban encryption in Britain</a> </font>
</dt><dd>
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Author: Rob Price </font>
</dd><dd style="margin-bottom:0.2in">
<font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">Summary: Jim Killock quoted on
the dangerousness of Prime Minister's possible plan to ban encryption
</font>
</dd><h2>
<a name="14e5445392bb45b8_ORG_contact_details"></a><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif">ORG
contact details</font></h2>
<p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif"><a href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff" target="_blank">Staff
page</a> </font>
</p>
<ul><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in"><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif"><a href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#jim" target="_blank">Jim
Killock, Executive Director</a> </font>
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in"><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif"><a href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#javier" target="_blank">Javier
Ruiz, Policy</a> </font>
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in"><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif"><a href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#ed" target="_blank">Ed
Paton-Williams, Campaigns</a> </font>
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in"><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif"><a href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#pam" target="_blank">Pam
Cowburn, Communications</a> </font>
</p>
</li><li><p><font face="Bitstream Charter, serif"><a href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/people/staff#lee" target="_blank">Lee
Maguire, Tech</a> </font>
</p>
</li></ul>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%"><br>
</p>
</div>
</div><br></div>