Bits Of Freedom is an independent

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

digital rights foundation, which focuses on privacy and communications freedom in the digital age. The foundation protects the right for privacy and the right to communications freedom in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Bits of Freedom started in 2000 and had a break between 2006 and August 2009 due to lack of funding. On August 14, 2009, Bits of Freedom continued its activities with funding provided by the Internet4All Foundation. Bits of Freedom organizes the Dutch version of the

Big Brother Awards The Big Brother Awards (BBAs) recognize "the government and private sector organizations ... which have done the most to threaten personal privacy". They are named after the George Orwell character Big Brother from the novel ''Nineteen Eigh ...

, initiated European cooperation between digital rights watch foundations in

European Digital Rights European Digital Rights (EDRi) is an international advocacy group headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. EDRi is a network collective of non-profit organizations (NGO), experts, advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights ...

(EDRI) and collects information about data leaks in the Netherlands to raise awareness of the potential dangers of increasing collection of data.

The Multatuli Project

The Multatuli Project, subtitled ''ISP Notice and take down'', was the title of an experiment done by members of the Bits of Freedom group in the summer of 2004. The group uploaded excerpts from

Multatuli Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel ''Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the a ...

to websites hosted at 10 different Dutch

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s, content which has been in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

since 1957. They then sent a complaint about the content from a

Hotmail Outlook.com is a webmail service that is part of the Microsoft 365 product family. It offers mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and Task management, tasks services. Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smit ...

account posing as a legal advisor to the 10 ISPs; seven of them complied and removed the site, one within just three hours, without investigating the legality of the matter, or asking questions about the dubious background of the requester.

Big Brother Awards

To raise awareness of privacy-related issues, Bits of Freedom holds annual

. This prize is awarded to businesses, governmental institutions and persons who have harmed privacy or increased civilian surveillance in the past year. The award is named after the character " Big Brother" from

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

's ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...

''. The winners of the Big Brother Awards 2011 were the National Police Services Agency (now the

national police corps The National Police Corps ( es, Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, link=no, CNP; ; also known simply as National Police, ) is the national civilian police, police force of Spain. The CNP is mainly responsible for policing urban areas, whilst rural ...

) (in the category "governmental institutions") for the use of spyware and hacking of hacking victims, minister

Edith Schippers Edith Ingeborg Schippers (born 25 August 1964) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businesswoman serving as President of the DSM Company since 1 February 2019. Schippers, a political consultan ...

(in the category "people") for forcing a restart of the Dutch

Electronic health record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared throu ...

, in spite of it not being supported by the Netherlands

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

(in the category "business") for going to the stock market without safeguards for user privacy and finally minister

Fred Teeven Fredrik "Fred" Teeven (born 5 August 1958) is a Dutch jurist, bus driver and former politician and prosecutor. A member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), he served as State Secretary at the Ministry of Security and Justice f ...

(in the category "popular vote") for further harming privacy legislation.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Bits of Freedom website

Speech
by

Annie Machon Annie Machon (born 1968) is a former MI5 intelligence officer, a writer, and public speaker. In 1996, she resigned from MI5, with the intention to blow the whistle on a series of alleged crimes committed by the agency. Afterward, Machon went on ...

about spy-related subjects
Censoring The Net With A Hotmail Account

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evalu ...

article discussing the Multatuli Project. Politics and technology Privacy organizations Organizations established in 2000

The Multatuli Project

Big Brother Awards

See also

References

External links