

Help the Open Rights Group, UK's EFF equivalent - mattmanser

The ORG is the UK&#x27;s EFF equivalent and needs your help, today the open rights group is half way to their goal of 300 new members:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openrightsgroup.org&#x2F;join&#x2F;<p>With the election coming up we need to get them to their goal!<p>Funding is to:<p>- Build a tool together which tells you where your local candidates stand on privacy and surveillance.<p>- Run local hustings across Britain, together with other NGOs and charities to make sure you can ask your candidates tough questions on civil liberties.<p>- Take part in a Don’t Spy on Us bus tour around the country to engage voters on surveillance.<p>- Hold meetings with candidates to put digital rights in the minds of new MPs.<p>- Create question guides so that you feel confident talking to your candidates about these issues.
======
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)

------
adventureloop
Jim Killock(Director of ORG) toured around Scotland last week to talk about a
Scottish National Identity scheme. The audio I recorded of him is on the
internet archive here[1]

[1]:
[https://archive.org/details/JimKillockScottishID](https://archive.org/details/JimKillockScottishID)

------
buro9
Erm...
[https://www.edirectdebit.com/openrightsgroup/pending.aspx](https://www.edirectdebit.com/openrightsgroup/pending.aspx)

How do I join?

~~~
oiuifbcssyyjh77
[https://secure.edirectdebit.com/Open-Rights-Group/Join-
us2](https://secure.edirectdebit.com/Open-Rights-Group/Join-us2)

There is a URL on the screen for those with Chrome problems, I used it and it
worked.

~~~
buro9
Thanks, worked for me too.

------
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.

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

------
edent
If you're in Oxford, we're setting up a local branch of ORG
[http://www.meetup.com/ORG-Oxford](http://www.meetup.com/ORG-Oxford)

Love to see some of you at our first meeting.

