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

from the internet-privacy-week dept

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.

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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Right of export: When reasonable, users should be able to export their data in a useable format.
5. 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!

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

Internet Privacy Week: Sign The Bill Of Rights & Raise Money For The EFF

from the show-your-support dept

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.

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The fight to protect online privacy is happening on many fronts, but when it comes to the internet services we use every day, the best possible results will come from collaboration between users and providers. This week, we're helping Namecheap and the EFF take a step in that direction with the declaration of Internet Privacy Week and the unveiling of the Internet Privacy Bill Of Rights.

The goal is to get online service providers to agree to uphold privacy by respecting five key user rights with respect to their data and how it is collected and used: transparency, control, recourse, export, and due process. The focus of the bill is on openness and control, leaving plenty of room for providers to do innovative things with data while ensuring users have full knowledge of what's happening and a say in how their data is used. Read more about the five rights on the Privacy Week campaign page.

There are two important things you can do to help out -- and just by doing so, you'll be raising money for the EFF:

1. Sign the Bill Of Rights! Namecheap and the EFF will be reaching out to service providers to convince them to agree to the bill, and the more support they can show the better.
2. Share the campaign! Spread the word to help gather more signatures, and also to get the attention of companies.

For every 500 signatures and shares, Namecheap and its partners will donate $5000 to the EFF, up to a maximum of $25,000.

Internet Privacy Week continues until October 24th, and we'll be bringing you some extra coverage of privacy issues, as well as more information about the Bill Of Rights. Also check out coverage on the Namecheap blog.

Filed Under: eff, internet privacy bill of rights, internet privacy week
Companies: namecheap

It's Move Your Domain Day: Join The AMA, Help Support EFF

from the ask-them-anything dept

As we noted yesterday, today is Move Your Domain Day at Namecheap, long-time supporters of Techdirt and a free and open internet. To kick things off, Namecheap founder and CEO Richard Kirkendall is doing a Reddit AMA starting at 8am PST today. Head on over to check it out and submit your questions — we think you'll agree that they have a great perspective on copyright, free speech, privacy, net neutrality and lots of other topics that we discuss here at Techdirt.

If you want to support the EFF, get yourself a new registrar, or both, then today is the day. Since 2011, Move Your Domain Day has raised nearly $250,000 for EFF, and this year continues the trend. Here's how it works:

• Starting January 27th, you can transfer your .com, .net, .biz, .org or .info domain to Namecheap for only $3.98 (plus $0.18 ICANN fee where applicable), using coupon code NC15MYDD
• When you transfer, they'll add another year to your domain free. Any shared hosting package (Value, Professional or Ultimate) will be 50% off when you use coupon code MYDDHOST15
• For every domain transferred or hosting plan purchased, up to 10,000, Namecheap will donate $0.50 to EFF. The donation amount goes up to $1.00 per domain/hosting plan if they exceed 10,000. And if they exceed 20,000 domains transferred/hosting plans purchased, Namecheap will donate $1.50 for each product purchased.

Visit the website to move your domain and help spread the word.

Filed Under: ama, eff, move your domain day, sponsored post
Companies: namecheap

Tomorrow Is Move Your Domain Day: Support The EFF And Get A Year For Free

from the good-deal-for-a-good-cause dept

If you've been a Techdirt reader since the days of SOPA/PIPA, you probably know that Namecheap is a big supporter of a free and open internet, and was one of the first registrars to speak out against the bills. More recently, they've been big supporters of Techdirt directly, providing matching funds to our crowdfunding campaign for net neutrality reporting and sponsoring our sitewide switch to HTTPS. In October, they were one of only two companies that got a perfect score on the EFF's ranking of service providers that stand up to copyright and trademark bullies, and many of us here at Techdirt use them for all our personal domain registration needs.

Now we're happy to team up with Namecheap and promote their latest campaign: Move Your Domain Day, happening tomorrow. It's a continuation of something they started with Reddit users in 2011, which so far has raised nearly $250,000 for the EFF. Here's how it works:

• Starting January 27th, you can transfer your .com, .net, .biz, .org or .info domain to Namecheap for only $3.98 (plus $0.18 ICANN fee where applicable), using coupon code NC15MYDD
• When you transfer, they'll add another year to your domain free. Any shared hosting package (Value, Professional or Ultimate) will be 50% off when you use coupon code MYDDHOST15
• For every domain transferred or hosting plan purchased, up to 10,000, Namecheap will donate $0.50 to EFF. The donation amount goes up to $1.00 per domain/hosting plan if they exceed 10,000. And if they exceed 20,000 domains transferred/hosting plans purchased, Namecheap will donate $1.50 for each product purchased.

Visit the website to learn more and help spread the word. Also, stay tuned for a Reddit AMA with Namecheap tomorrow at 8am PST.

Filed Under: eff, move your domain day, sponsored post
Companies: namecheap

Thanks To Namecheap For Sponsoring Techdirt's Switch To SSL

from the for-a-secure-internet dept

As some of you know, Techdirt recently completed the process of protecting all Techdirt traffic with full SSL encryption — something we believe every internet company should do. Part of this process involved seeking a sponsor to help us offset the money and time spent getting everything switched over, and today we're happy to announce that Namecheap has stepped up to that role.

We're very happy to work with Namecheap, as the company has established itself as a defender of user rights and an open and secure internet, sharing many of the same values that we espouse here at Techdirt. They were among the first domain registrars to speak up against SOPA, they contributed heavily to the matching funds in our Beacon campaign to raise money for net neutrality reporting, and they do frequent fundraising for groups like the EFF and Fight For The Future.

As part of our sponsorship deal, you'll notice a message from Namecheap at the top of Techdirt, and see a couple more posts highlighting work the company has done and the services it offers — including SSLs.com, Namecheap's SSL certificate shop. We're grateful to Namecheap for its support, which helps our small team keep turning out quality content while juggling important technical upgrades like this one. We hope our readers will take a moment to support Namecheap in return, and check out its services for your needs when it comes to domain names, hosting and security certificates.

Filed Under: sponsorship, ssl, techdirt
Companies: namecheap

EFF Ranks Service Providers For Who Stands Up To Copyright/Trademark Bullies

from the good-to-see dept

We've written in the past about the EFF's Who Has Your Back rankings, in which it looks at various internet companies to see who protects your privacy against governments and lawsuits. Now, the EFF has come out with an offshoot chart, looking at who has your back when it comes to bogus copyright and trademark demands. The only two companies that get a perfect score are Automattic/WordPress and NameCheap, as you can see on the full chart. The worst, somewhat surprisingly, is Tumblr, which scored a big fat zero out of the five listed items.

Automattic's Wordpress.com and NameCheap were the only two companies to receive five out of five stars. However, two other companies were recognized for going the extra mile: Etsy, for providing educational guides, and Twitter, for publishing regular and thorough transparency reports. Overall, 10 companies did not publish adequate transparency reports, highlighting an information black hole for consumers. Additionally, four companies missed a star for their counter-notice practices—a critical procedure for restoring content that may have been taken down without cause.

Twitter lost a point for not documenting the counternotice process. Etsy lost a point for failing to have a transparency report (something I'm guessing the company will do before too long). Facebook also doesn't have a transparency report -- though it does have one for government requests, so hopefully it will expand that to copyright and trademark takedown requests as well. YouTube lost points for not requiring a DMCA notice (thank you ContentID) before taking down content. Imgur also doesn't require a DMCA notice (which surprised me).

The EFF's original "Who Has Your Back" effort really did help shame many companies into upping their game in protecting the privacy of users from government requests. Hopefully this new one will do the same for copyright and trademark takedowns.

Filed Under: copyright, policies, service providers, trademark, who has your back
Companies: automattic, eff, etsy, facebook, imgur, namecheap, tumblr, wordpress, youtube

A Special Thanks To Twitch And Namecheap For Providing The Matching Funds For Our Crowdfunding Campaign

from the step-on-up dept

Reminder: If you support our crowdfunding campaign today
your support will be immediately doubled thanks to matching funds. »

As we recently explained, the type of reporting we do isn't always conducive to advertising support -- in fact, our work on the SOPA fight caused us to lose a significant amount of revenue, and the blog itself operates at a loss. Earlier this month we announced that we were running a crowdfunding campaign on BeaconReader to fund our net neutrality coverage in particular -- as that's another subject that deserves deep-dive coverage, and which traditional advertisers don't want to go anywhere near. One of the great things about working with BeaconReader was that they were able to line up matching funds, so that every donation to us is automatically doubled by the matching donors. Today we're happy to announce that the first two matching donors have been revealed as Twitch and Namecheap -- two companies that are dedicated to preserving an open and free internet, and who wanted to support our coverage in this way, by multiplying the impact of anyone who donates. We're also announcing that Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has backed our project as an "Event Sponsor," for a net neutrality salon that we'll be holding later this year.

We're excited to have this support, and just as excited to see so many of you step up to back the project as well. We're about a week away and there's still a long way to go, but the initial support has been fantastic. If you enjoy what we do, and would like to see it continue (and go deeper and be more involved), please consider backing the project in the next week and thank Twitch and Namecheap for immediately doubling the impact of your support. If we succeed, we'll be able to devote more time and resources to our net neutrality reporting, including bringing in additional voices, meeting with key players, and just generally spending more time digging into the details of this important topic -- rather than having to spend it convincing advertisers that, no, we don't want to force a giant annoying video to play on the site before you can read anything, because that's not how we treat our community. It's great that Twitch and NameCheap were willing to step up via BeaconReader, to show their commitment to dedicated, independent reporting on these important topics.

You can help by supporting our coverage right now »

Filed Under: advertising, alexis ohanian, crowdfunding, matching funds, net neutrality, open internet, reporting
Companies: namecheap, twitch