The Easiest Thing You Can Do Today To Raise Money For The EFF

from the internet-privacy-week dept

Mon, Oct 24th 2016 1:06pm — Leigh Beadon

Post sponsored by

We've teamed up with Namecheap and the EFF to promote Internet Privacy Week and continue the fight to protect your privacy online. Show your support by signing and sharing the new Internet Privacy Bill of Rights.

Today's the last day of Internet Privacy Week, but the ongoing fight for online privacy is far from over. That's why we're promoting the new Internet Privacy Bill Of Rights to companies that provide online services. We need you to help us spread the word by signing the bill, and by doing so you'll be raising money for the EFF! For every 500 signatures, Namecheap and its partners will donate $5,000 to the EFF for its important and continuing role in defending online privacy.

The idea behind the Bill Of Rights is to get online service providers to agree to respect five key user rights in terms of how their services collect and handle personal data:

Right of transparency: Users have a right to know what is actually being done with their data in clear, understandable terms — not buried in legalese written in tiny print.
Right of control: Companies should give users the ability to control their data and how it is used, including asking specific permission at the time of use, rather than just at the point of signup.
Right of recourse: Individuals should be able to protest certain uses of data, and companies should set up a process with a dedicated person to handle these concerns.
Right of export: When reasonable, users should be able to export their data in a useable format.
Right of due process: Whenever possible, companies should alert end users to government requests for their data, or civil subpoenas for identifying information allowing them to use legal processes to protect such data.

We believe this sort of collaborative approach is the best first step to protecting internet privacy and avoid the dangers of poorly-crafted, over-burdensome regulations and a data free-for-all. So please help us out and sign the Online Privacy Bill Of Rights today! (We know there has been some confusion around the particular method of gathering signatures, which is using a "giveaway" platform. Please note you can sign the petition using either Facebook or a name and email, and the platform's privacy policy is prominently posted at the bottom of the page.)

Remember: for every 500 signatures, the EFF will receive $5,000!

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

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While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: bill of rights, control, privacy, transparency
Companies: eff, namecheap

9 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2016 @ 1:19pm

lemme get this straight
To support internet privacy, I have to give up my privacy -- under unknown terms and conditions -- to a domain registrar? On the same page in which the registrar is tracking me with google analytics, facebook, doubleclick, and various other ad servers of unknown credence.

Yeah. No.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2016 @ 1:44pm

Re: lemme get this straight
Your post is indicative of one of the problems privacy activists have in trying to affect change with policymakers and to show institutions at large how much people care.

I personally trust TechDirt enough to trust NameCheap (with me blocking their 3rd party trackers) and have signed the Internet Privacy Bill of Rights, but I understand that not everyone is comfortable enough doing so.

That said, you may want to consider what privacy gains you could receive from the EFF being better funded. Recall that they are using their resources to try to claw back "Upstream" surveillance by the NSA through the courts. Since Congress and the White House have no appetite to do meaningful surveillance reform themselves, lawsuits may be the only chance we have left at regaining a semblance of our privacy and dignity online.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2016 @ 2:29pm

Re: lemme get this straight
Right. If they were serious about this, it'd be a page hosted at the EFF itself, rather than one set up to perform surveillance on visitors and to collect the email addresses of signers for future spamming. This is a massive fail and I urge everyone to boycott it.
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Paul Renault (profile), 24 Oct 2016 @ 2:50pm

Re: Re: lemme get this straight
There's nothing preventing you from actually donating money directly to the EFF, eh.

Bonus, if you donate enough money (not really that much): you'll receive a big red sticker you can put on your laptop - just the perfect thing when you want to annoy TSA agents and get knowing nods from fans of Edward Snowden. I have three of 'em.

Stickers, that is. As for my 'nads', I have the usual number.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2016 @ 2:55pm

Re: Re: lemme get this straight
The EFF isn't running this, though. NameCheap is. And considering NameCheap has TechDirt's endorsement, it can't be all that bad. Admittedly them not disabling 3rd party trackers is an oversight on their part. But those can be blocked with adblockers.
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Alphonse Tomato, 24 Oct 2016 @ 3:43pm

Re: Re: Re: lemme get this straight
If you're not already blocking all that crap, you clearly don't care. If you are, what's your problem? If you want to donate NameCheap's money, you gotta do it their way (yeah, they're getting a little advertising out of it), but if you've got a problem with that, send money directly to the EFF. I'm doing both.

NameCheap has sponsored stuff like this in the past, they seem to be good people. And their rates are good, and the website and control panel won't annoy the crap out of you, like GoDaddy's do, and they haven't tried to cheat me, like VeriSign did.
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Thad, 24 Oct 2016 @ 4:30pm

Re: Re: lemme get this straight
Sure, but there are other ways to donate to the EFF, without NameCheap taking a cut.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2016 @ 7:12pm

1 person is telling us not to sign? Do we trust him more than blocked trackers?
So in the end, 1 individual who is either paranoid or doesnt know how to block trackers, is trying to prevent others from ultimately assisting the EFF thru a donation. I can list namecheap as spam and never see it a 2nd time if they do spam me and the trackers are blocked so that is a moot point. Help out the EFF.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2016 @ 9:03pm

Re: lemme get this straight
Yeah, ain't it beautiful?
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