The Public Voice

The Public Voice project was established to promote public participation in Internet policy making on issues ranging from privacy and free expression to consumer protection and Internet governance. Through international conferences, reports and funding for travel the Public Voice project seeks to increase the presence of NGOs at meetings across the globe. In cooperation with the OECD, UNESCO, and other international organizations, the Public Voice project brings civil society leaders face to face with government officials for constructive engagement about current policy issues. Public Voice events have been held in Buenos Aires, Dubai, Hong Kong, Ottawa, Paris, Washington, DC, and Hawaii.

You can see all these links on privacy issues.

There is also information about The Privacy in a New Era: Challenges, Opportunities, Partnerships that was held in Wrolclaw Poland last september.

There are available presentations.

EPIC Urges Stop to RFID-Tracking Scheme for School Children

EPIC, along with EFF and the ACLU-Northern California, urged the Brittan School Board in a joint letter to terminate an experimental program using mandatory ID badges tracking children’s movements in and around the school with RFID technology. The letter argues that the program breaches children's right to privacy and dignity as human beings by treating them like cattle or a piece of inventory, and that the RFID badges jeopardize the safety and security of students by broadcasting their identity and location information to anyone with a chip reader. For more information, see the EPIC Children and RFID Systems page.

new online consultations Working Party 29: IP and RFID

The Working Party 29 has adopted a working document on data protection issues related to intellectual property rights (Working Document 104) adopted on January 18th, 2005.

The working document recalls the application of the main data protection principles contained in the data protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) in the following two scenarios: First, in the deployment of on-line services using the so-called digital management of rights systems (?DRMs?). Second, in the processing of personal data to conduct investigations of users suspected of copyright infringement


Data protection issues related to RFID technology
On January 19th, the Working Party 29 adopted a Working Document on data protection issues related to RFID technology (Working document 105).

After outlining the potential use of RFID technology in various sectors, the Working Document recalls the need to comply with the basic principles set out in the EC data protection Directives (Directive 95/46/EC and Directive 2002/58EC) whenever personal data is collected using RFID technology. The paper also provides guidance to manufacturers of the technology (RFID tags, readers and applications) as well as RFID standardization bodies on their responsibility towards designing privacy compliant technology in order to enable deployers of the technology to carry out their obligations under the data protection Directive.

Berkman Center

At the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School you can read this paper about DRM "Why DRM Should Be Cause for Concern" by Paul Petrick:

In response to piracy and online file trading, the music industry has begun to adopt technological measures, often referred to as digital rights management (DRM), to control the sale and distribution of music over the Internet. Previous economic analysis on the impact of DRM implementation has been overly simplistic. A careful analysis of copyright law and the microeconomic principles governing the music industry demonstrates that commentators have failed to account for factors relevant to the measure of social welfare within the music industry. This paper develops a more refined economic model that is better suited to accurately assessing how legal or technological changes like DRM will affect the music industry.

And another one: "Information Cannot Be Owned" by Jean Nicolas Druey:

Analyzing the phenomenon of information, the differences of its properties as compared with those of a physical object are illustrated and assessed as fundamental; ownership would therefore be for information a Procrustean bed leading to mere arbitrariness

Fraunhofer-SIT

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft undertakes applied research of direct utility to private and public enterprise and of wide benefit to society. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft maintains roughly 80 research units, including 57 Fraunhofer Institutes, at over 40 different locations throughout Germany. A staff of some 12,700, predominantly qualified scientists and engineers, works with an annual research budget of over one billion euros.

One of these institutes is the Institut Sichere Informations-Technologie (SIT) who provides services for all branches of industry.

SIT provides these services within the context of four new business units:

Security and Mobility

Identity and Rights Management

Secure Business Processes

Holistic Security Management and Business Continuity


For further information you can download their annual report.