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Help the Open Rights Group, UK's EFF equivalent

66 points by mattmanser ↗ HN
The ORG is the UK's EFF equivalent and needs your help, today the open rights group is half way to their goal of 300 new members:

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/

With the election coming up we need to get them to their goal!

Funding is to:

- Build a tool together which tells you where your local candidates stand on privacy and surveillance.

- Run local hustings across Britain, together with other NGOs and charities to make sure you can ask your candidates tough questions on civil liberties.

- Take part in a Don’t Spy on Us bus tour around the country to engage voters on surveillance.

- Hold meetings with candidates to put digital rights in the minds of new MPs.

- Create question guides so that you feel confident talking to your candidates about these issues.

15 comments

[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 44.9 ms ] thread
buro9
Erm... https://www.edirectdebit.com/openrightsgroup/pending.aspx

How do I join?

tspiteri
From the title and description, where the ORG is described as the "UK's EFF", I got the impression that the ORG is affiliated with the EFF, but on the website it seems that it isn't. Maybe it would have been better described as the "UK's EFF equivalent".
mattmanser
Changed, I didn't mean to give that impression! I'm not one of the ORG, just seen them speak at a Nottingham tech meetup and donate, so my fault, not them!
luxpir
Cheers, Matt. Also just joined. Been meaning to for a while now. Also based in the Midlands. Will hopefully get a chance to get involved this year.
rlpb
I consider the ORG like I might consider a union for tech workers. It's far from the same thing, but it does work to protect the fundamental freedoms that allowed us to train for our profession.

If you work in the technology industry in the UK, please consider paying "union dues" to stop the bizarre laws which haven't been thought out and just don't make any sense (eg. "ban encryption", "backdoors in everything"), and instead force politicans to pass technology-affecting laws that actually make sense.

It's a small price to pay out of your paycheck if you consider that it's effectively insurance for all your future paychecks.

[I'm a passive ORG supporter but otherwise have no affiliation]

pjc50
It's strange, there's already a professional association (the British Computer Society) but they're not useful. They're very conservative/blue chip, not very "Internet culture" at all.

Even more ludicrously there's the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

(I too am an ORG donor and got involved with the consultation on Scottish identity database)

herah
Cool! I had no idea this existed even though I work in the open data and transparency space.
[dead] herah
Cool! I had no idea this existed even though I work in the open data and transparency space.