End of activities Bits of Freedom

Per 1 September 2006 the Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom (BOF) will cease its activities. Since its establishment in 2000, Bits of Freedom has successfully defended digital civil rights, such as privacy on the Internet and online freedom of speech. The board of Bits of Freedom doesn't see any possibilities to continue the activities now that the two employees (Maurice Wessling and Sjoera Nas) have both decided to leave. The office in Amsterdam will be closed on 1 September and the organisation will not have employees any more. Legally, the foundation will not be dismantled, in order to allow the board to continue the annual presentation of the Big Brother Awards with the help of volunteers.

In the past few months, the board has considered several options to continue Bits of Freedom with new employees. Unfortunately, none of these options turned out to be viable. Due to illness, Karin Spaink, chairwoman of the board, was unable to supervise a new start. Another cause for the demise of the organisation is the continuing uncertainty about the finances. The foundation does not have any financial reserve and in spite of generous company sponsors and private donations, it was increasingly difficult to create a workable budget.

The decision has been very difficult for both the board and the employees, and was only taken after long and careful deliberations on alternative solutions.

Since its establishment, Bits of Freedom has advocated the upkeep of fundamental civil rights in the digital era. During the past 6 years both governments and companies have initiated many measures and activities that have endangered civil rights. Governments have extended their powers in many ways. In stead of dedicated investigations into the activities of people suspected of serious crimes, law enforcement authorities silently but massively revert to data-mining techniques to examine the daily behaviour of innocent citizens. This sets unwarranted and unprecedented limits to personal privacy. Necessity and effectiveness of many new legal measures have -unjustly- been left out of the debate.

In the nineties of the 20th century, the political debate focussed on the transparent government, but currently government seems set on the creation of the transparent citizen. But besides government, industry also plays a very important role in the increasing control of the behaviour of citizens and consumers. This tendency is illustrated by developments such as mandatory data retention, the proposed central storage of biometric passport data and the central storage of travel-data created by the new national public transport chip card.

During the last six years, Bits of Freedom developed expertise on many topics, from the legal interception of telephony and internet communications to privacy and RFID. BOF also dedicated serious research to other topics such as spam, copyrights and internet notice and takedown. The organisation has fulfilled an important role as policy watchdog and has alerted a large audience on many new threats to civil rights. This was also made possible by collaborations with many other academic and consumer organisations, individual experts and sympathisers.

Fundamental rights, especially privacy, are of the utmost importance. Bits of Freedom definitely does not cease its activities with a satisfied feeling of having accomplished the most important goals. To the contrary, a bottom-up civil rights movement seems more necessary than ever.

Fortunately, there are at least 2 activities that continue in the spirit of Bits of Freedom; European Digital Rights (EDRI) and the annual presentation of the Big Brother Awards. In 2002, Bits of Freedom was one of the initiators of the establishment of a European network of digital rights organisations. EDRI currently has 21 members from 14 countries and continues to focus on relevant EU policy. Another important activity from Bits of Freedom, the annual presentation of the Big Brother Awards, will also be continued by the board, hopefully with the help of new volunteers.

Bits of Freedom would like to thank the large group of sponsors and private donors that have enabled the existence of the organisation the last 6 years. Especially Felipe Rodriguez, ISP XS4ALL Internet and the foundation XS4ALL (renamed Internet4all) deserve great credit. But we also want to deeply thank all other organisations, companies and the many, many individuals that have trusted us and supported us.

The defence and upkeep of fundamental rights remain critical. We hope other organisations and individuals will continue to do this. Enough remains to be done. We hope to meet again at the next Big Brother Awards!