Information Policy

Internet activists are finding ways around China’s Great Firewall

He first started circumventing the Great Firewall to access pornography. Back in 2003, when he was in college, it was pretty easy: Access some proxy servers, and away you go.

More than a decade later, he has become an IT professional and, in his spare time, a coder, one of a small group of developers who work undercover in China to design systems to circumvent the largest, most sophisticated system of online censorship anywhere in the world. The government is probably monitoring him, he says, but has yet to take any action.

Mauritius joins the Data Protection Convention - “Convention 108”

The Republic of Mauritius today became the second non-European state – after Uruguay in 2013 – to ratify the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, also known as “Convention 108”, and its Additional Protocol, taking the total number of states parties to the treaty to 49.

Polish Government Expands Power to Monitor Citizens, Block Internet

In response to the Polish government’s new counter-terrorism and surveillance laws, which allow authorities to block websites and telecommunications, limit the freedom of assembly, and allow secret surveillance of virtually the whole population, Freedom House issued the following statement:

Estonian e-governance think tank launches a guide to digital society

Estonia is widely known as digital country, but so far there weren’t any practical and comprehensive handbooks on how and of what the digital society is really made of. Now, the Estonian e-Governance Academy (eGA) has gathered all knowledge on e-governance into the publication “e-Governance in Practice” that gives an overview on creating and managing digital society, covering all main domains, such as cyber security, interoperability, infrastructure, enablers, e-democracy, legislation, educational programs and many critical e-services.

'Control' of the Internet?

As we’ve said before, we believe the Internet is perhaps the greatest vehicle for disseminating the ideas of Liberty ever made available to mankind. Perhaps we’re biased, being an Internet publication, but we don’t think we’re overstating things. That’s why Internet governance and regulation is so critical. Indeed, that’s why conservatives view with alarm any headlines about the U.S. “relinquishing control” of the Internet. No conservative wants to trust other nations — or the UN — to control something so fundamental, and any time Barack Obama is part of the discussion, it’s bound to be a bad idea.