[Nettime-nl] bits of freedom heropgericht

[geert lovink <geert@desk.nl>]

Waakhond digitale burgerrechten Bits of Freedom is terug
14 augustus 2009 – Bits of Freedom gaat opnieuw digitale burgerrechten  
verdedigen. Veel mensen maken zich zorgen over de toenemende  
verzameldrift en beperking van hun digitale vrijheid door de overheid  
en het bedrijfsleven. Zij constateren dat hun burgerrechten daarbij  
onvoldoende serieus worden genomen. Bits of Freedom is terug, en zal  
zich door het voeren van een constructieve lobby en actieve campagnes  
inzetten voor de verdediging van de digitale grondrechten van de  
Nederlandse burger

Website en nieuwsbrief Bits of Freedom

De website van Bits of Freedom zal de komende maand worden vernieuwd.  
Een archief van de oude website is hier te vinden (dit archief wordt  
niet meer bijgehouden). Bits of Freedom zal vanaf 28 augustus weer een  
tweewekelijkse nieuwsbrief per e-mail versturen. Klik hier om u te  
abonneren op de nieuwsbrief.

Over Bits of Freedom

De stichting Bits of Freedom verdedigt privacy en communicatievrijheid  
in de informatiemaatschappij. De organisatie staat onder leiding van  
Ot van Daalen. Het vernieuwde bestuur van Bits of Freedom bestaat uit  
Doke Pelleboer (ex-directeur van XS4ALL), Joris van Hoboken  
(onderzoeker bij het Instituut voor Informatierecht van de  
Universiteit van Amsterdam) en Karianne Thomas (advocaat bij  
advocatenkantoor Van Doorne).

Contactgegevens

Telefoon: +31 (0)6 5378 1280 (tijdelijk)
Email: info [at] bof dot nl

Stichting Bits of Freedom
Postbus 10746
1001 ES  Amsterdam
ABN AMRO bankrekening 55 47 06 512,
ten name van Bits of Freedom, Amsterdam.

--

Speech for the relaunch of Bits of Freedom
14 August 2009
ot.vandaalen at bof.nl

http://www.bof.nl/

The promise of freedom of digital technologies

1. Digital technologies developed in the past decades carry within  
them a great
promise. Let me tell you about my first encounter with that promise. I
remember fondly the day I installed our first modem in my computer. It  
was a
14k4 modem, if I remember correctly; it was 1994 or 1995.

2. My family and I were no early adopters, but for most people, those  
were the
first days of the internet. Those were the days that online coffee  
machines
made headlines. Those were the days when playing chess over the internet
with some guy from Japan was worth mentioning to my friends in high- 
school.
Those were the days that a single line of ASCII text or a floppy disk  
could
mean the world to you.

3. Those days are long gone, but the promise of digital technologies  
made a
lasting impression on me. Everyone could start its own website and  
publish it
to the world. You were no longer dependent on the goodwill of  
corporations
to create new software, or to connect with your friends. Digital  
technology
gave each individual powerful tools to participate in a global  
community.
Meanwhile, security experts, aware of the privacy-risks associated  
with these
technologies, developed methods to ensure that each of us could enjoy  
the
privacy he or she also enjoyed in the analog days. It was a revolution.

4. And as is common with revolutions, governments and corporations were
struggling to keep up. Studies were commissioned to understand the  
nature of
digital technologies and the internet. New laws were created, and old  
laws
were extended. New corporations turned the internet to their  
advantage. Old
corporations couldn't adapt and struggled to survive.

5. The Dutch government at that time also tried to determine its  
position. After
careful deliberation, it formulated in 1998 a central principle for  
deciding how
laws should relate to these new, digital phenomena. The principle read:
“That which applies off-line, should also apply on-line.”
(“wat off -line geldt, moet ook on-line gelden”).

6. The law, according to the Dutch government, should make no  
distinction
between bricks and bits; no distinction between the analog and the  
digital; and
no distinction between the physical and the virtual.

7. This principle led to much resistance. It was feared that it would  
be used to
impose off-line restrictions on the on-line world. It was feared that  
the
promise of freedom would be clipped at the wings.

8. This was the time that Bits of Freedom started its activities.  
Under the lead of
Maurice Wessling, and later also Sjoera Nas, Bits of Freedom fought  
hard to
ensure that this promise of freedom did not turn into a threat of  
control.
Unfortunately, as Karin told you, it had to end its activities in 2006.

9. Since then, however, it appears that this already questionable  
principle is being
substituted for a new one, which is even worse: “That which we  
wouldn't apply
off-line, we will apply on-line.”

10. Let me take you through a selection of examples we encountered in  
The
Netherlands since Bits of Freedom closed its doors. Sensitive  
databases are being
built and used to the fullest extent.

11. Let me start with databases. The Dutch government is building  
databases.
Enormous databases containing highly sensitive and private information  
about
individuals. These are being built at a breakneck speed, while the need
therefore, the security thereof and the legitimacy thereof is  
questionable.

12. First example: telecommunications data. Dutch internet providers  
are obliged
to collect traffic data and location data of all subscribers. They  
will have to do
so for a period of 6 months for internet traffic, and for a period of  
12 months
for other types of traffic. Mind you, the Dutch government in its  
first legislative
proposal concluded that all data should be retained for a period of 18  
months.
Only after resistance in both parliaments did the Minister cave in.

13. Now let's reverse the logic for once and apply this “on-line  
legislation” to the
“off-line world”. Wouldn't it be simply unthinkable that the postal  
office would
be obliged by the government to keep a record of all senders and  
recipients of
snail-mail, and do so for a period of 18 months?

14. Second example: transport data. This year, we saw the introduction  
of the
digital public transport card (the OV-chipkaart). This allows public  
transport
companies to register all movements of Dutch citizens via public  
transport.
These are then stored in a digital database. Meanwhile, it is known  
for one
year already that the security of the card – on which the whole system  
is
based – is broken, and cannot be fixed.

15. Now, would it be acceptable if someone were to constantly sit next  
to you
while you were taking a train or a bus, registering all your movements  
in a
small notebook, and then storing these notebooks in a safe which is  
accessible
by persons pretending to be you?

16. Last example: fingerprint data. The Dutch government recently not  
only
introduced the obligation to include fingerprints in passports, as was  
required
by European legislation, but in this process also introduced a database
containing all those fingerprints. This central database will be made  
accessible
not only for purposes of checking the authenticity of these passport,  
but also
for the prevention and investigation of crimes and terrorism.

17. Now what would happen if all Dutch citizens were obliged to report  
at the
police office, queue patiently and leave their thumb in blue ink in a  
file for later
use against them? It is not surprising that various privacy experts,  
including the
Dutch Data Protection Authority, concluded that a central fingerprint
database in general and this multi-purpose database in particular  
seriously
infringed the right to privacy.

18. Now, of course it would be waste of tax money if all the data  
being collected
was not put to good use. But you can rest assured. Let me give you one  
recent
example.

19. The CIOT, or Central Information Point for Telecommunications  
Investigations
(the Centraal Informatiepunt Onderzoek Telecommunicatie) is the  
investigative
clearing house for telecommunication subscriber data in The  
Netherlands. If
the police for example has come across an email-address of a suspected
criminal and wants to know the name of the subscriber which owns that
address, it can request the CIOT to provide this. Now, most of the  
Dutch in
this room will already know, but for the non-Dutch: how many times per
month does the CIOT receive such a request? (There are approximately  
16.5
million citizens in The Netherlands.) It turns out that CIOT receives  
over
250.000 of such requests per month.

20. Now, again, let's apply this example off-line: would it be  
acceptable if 250.000
Dutch citizens per month received a request from the police to identify
themselves in their home?

21. All in all, I am really concerned about the digital collection  
fever of the Dutch
government. I am surprised how little the right to privacy is  
respected in the
process of creating all these databases. Now don't get me wrong: I'm  
all for
using digital technology to improve our lives. But only if the  
collection of
private data is kept to the barest minimum, privacy is ensured to the  
fullest
extent and the security of the systems used is excellent.
While digital openness and freedom remains under siege

22. But it is not only databases that I am concerned about.  
Simultaneously, the
openness and freedom of digital technology – and the internet in  
particular –
is still under siege.

23. In The Netherlands, more than 85% of all households have internet  
access and
digital technologies are becoming more pervasive and more important:
• Creative possibilities have grown exponentially. Blogs, mash-ups and  
wiki's :
the creative content available on the web is simply amazing.
• Innovation shows no signs of abating. The costs of using digital  
technology
is dropping, increasing the amount of computing power at the hands of
each individual. The free software movement produces software which is
superior to proprietary software and gives users much more freedom.
• Information available online has exploded. Blogs, books, music and  
academic
knowledge are all available at the fingertips of each individual  
connected to
the internet.

24. It is not surprising then, that the French constitutional court  
recently in the
HADOPI-case explicitly confirmed that access to internet forms part of  
the
fundamental right to freedom of communication.

25. Nevertheless, powerful lobbies still attempt to gain control over  
one of the
most efficient and open distribution channels we know. Rights holders  
are
promoting the idea of disconnecting users from the internet if they  
allegedly
infringe copyright, as we have recently seen in France. Filtering and  
zoning
technologies are becoming more pervasive: in The Netherlands for  
example,
BREIN, the enforcement department of Dutch collection societies, has  
publicly
indicated that it is considering requesting internet providers to  
filter torrentsites.
And the principle that internet providers should not discriminate
between different types of content is the subject of a heated debate.

26. These are also troubling developments. Disconnection, filtering  
and content
discrimination all stand in the way of an open and free internet which  
is
accessible to all. The fundamental right of freedom of communication  
is also in
need of defense. Bits of Freedom will defend your digital freedoms.

27. So let's take stock. What has come of this questionable principle  
“that which
applies offline, should also apply online”? As it turns out, it  
resulted in the
worst of both worlds: far-reaching restrictions from the off-line  
world are
imposed on the on-line world, while the civil liberties that are  
applicable to all
spheres of human activity are being ignored in the digital realm.
28. That is why Bits of Freedom is back online: to try to ensure that  
the
fundamental rights each Dutch citizen enjoys, will be respected in the  
digital
age.

29. Now what will we do? The two themes I set out before will be  
central to our
first campaigns: we will fight against privacy-infringing databases,  
and we will
fight for an open and free internet. We have organized two small  
workshops
tomorrow at 14.00 hrs and 15.00 hrs, during which you can share your
thoughts on these issues.

30. And second, how will we do that?
• We will primarily work on influencing government policy and  
selfregulation.
To this end, we will try to introduce specific legislative proposals
aimed at safeguarding these fundamental rights. We will also develop
websites which should become a focal point for the campaigns mentioned
before. And we will of course continue organizing the Big Brother  
Awards.
• We will do our work in The Netherlands, but we will also make our  
voice
heard at a European level. Where possible, we will work together with
other digital rights organizations and through the European Digital  
Rights
Initiative (EDRI).
• We will again start sending our bi-weekly newsletter on 28 August.  
If you
haven't subscribed to the mailing list, you can do so on bof.nl. Our  
Twitter
account is bitsoffreedom.
• We will have a full-time staff: check our newsletter for vacancies  
in the
coming months. But we will also need your help: all your  
contributions, and
I consider contributions in-kind to be just as important as financial
contributions, are appreciated.
Conclusion: the promise of freedom

31. Before I conclude, let me say some words of thanks:
• I firstly would like to thank Sjoera Nas and Maurice Wessling and the
former board of directors of Bits of Freedom for their work in the past
years.
• I would also like to thank the Foundation Internet4All, whose  
significant
financial grant puts Bits of Freedom in an ideal starting position for  
building
a professional organization.
• Lastly, I would like to thank the current board of directors for  
preparing
Bits of Freedom for the relaunch. My special thanks go to Joris van
Hoboken, who looked after Bits of Freedom after the suspension of its
activities in 2006 and played a pivotal role in setting up the new
organization.

32. So digital technologies still carry within them a great promise.  
It is a promise
of individual freedom and emancipation. It is a promise of creativity  
and
imagination. It is a promise that each of us can live up to its full  
potential,
without undue restriction or interference by government or  
corporations. Let
us make sure that every individual can enjoy that freedom. Let's turn  
bits of
freedom into megabytes of freedom.


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