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advocacy
bodies
This page
highlights industry groups
and public interest advocacy bodies concerned with privacy.
The second week of June saw the
announcement of yet another US industry group - the Privacy Leadership
Initiative. The Initiative appears to overlap (same members, same objectives) with
the Online Privacy Alliance noted below.
From the plethora of community and
academic bodies concerned with online privacy and the implications of
new technologies we have made a quick selection. (A more detailed
listing is forthcoming).
activism
The Washington-based Electronic Privacy
Information Centre (EPIC),
established by Marc Rotenberg in 1994, is perhaps the leading 'web privacy'
public interest group. EPIC has produced some of the major studies in
the area, including comprehensive overviews of legislation and practice
in all developed economies.
At the beginning of 2001 EPIC joined with Privacy
International in establishing Privacy.Org,
a privacy information gateway. Its primary focus is the
US.
EPIC now faces competition from the Centre for
Democracy & Technology (CDT),
after criticisms that EPIC had been captured by the grey bermuda
triangle known as the Washington Beltway. It has a strong
interest in privacy, intellectual property and
telecommunications access issues. The smaller US Consumer
Project on Technology (CPT)
was established by
Ralph Nader in 1995.
The Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility (CPSR), like the somewhat
faded Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
has a wider ambit. Those sites are worth perusal - today's brouhaha
in the USA tends to become tomorrow's policy in Australia. The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
is still playing catch-up.
The Internet
Privacy Coalition is a disparate grouping of cryptographers, public
interest groups and businesses encouraging the widespread use of
cryptography and relaxation of export controls on cryptography.
Privacy International (PI)
is a global human
rights group with a Sydney presence.
The Global
Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) has a particular interest in
censorship and privacy.
The Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse, a California-based consumer group, teaches
individuals how to protect their privacy.
business
The Online Privacy Alliance (OPA)
is a US business-driven group primarily concerned with encouraging trust
by online consumers. It sponsored the significant 'Georgetown'
privacy survey from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown Uni.
NetCoalition.com,
a business lobby group, has recently launched a Net Privacy Campaign
aimed at US consumers.
PrivacyExchange (PX)
was established by the Center for Social & Legal
Research (CSLR) -
publisher of Privacy & American Business - and focuses on
EU-US privacy issues. It has one of the more information-rich sites,
with valuable extracts from commercial reports dating back to the 70's
Microsoft, a member with IBM of the TRUSTe
organisation, announced in late 1999 that it will withdraw advertising from
sites that do not have strong privacy policies. It has, however, been
widely criticised for the strangelovian test-marketing in Australia and
the EU of online licensing requirements for users of the Office 2000
suite.
The Better Business Bureau, a commercial body, earlier this year
launched BBBOnline, a certifying
service. We have provided pointers to major ecommerce certification
bodies in our consumers
guide.
PrivacyChoices
is a privacy education cum public relations - critics have characterised
it as disinformation - offspring of online advertising and consumer
monitoring giant DoubleClick.
Australia
In Australia the Communications Law
Centre (CLC) in Sydney
is an independent scholarly body affiliated with the
University of NSW. Over the past decade it has provided incisive
analysis.
The Australian
Privacy Charter Council (APCC)
brings together lawyers, public policy specialists and others with an
interest in policy development across Australia.
The Australian Privacy Foundation (APF) is
a similar body
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA)
is somewhat shrill and strongly cyberlibertarian.
events
The international conference on
Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP)
is an annual event.
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