Covid-19, Brexit, and the rollout of new technologies present new challenges to our fundamental rights, both on and offline. Voters in Scotland will soon go to the polls to have their say on these issues and many more. But what do the parties have to say about them?
Join us for a live-streamed candidate hustings, jointly organised by Amnesty Scotland and Open Rights Group Scotland, focused on questioning political parties’ policies on a variety of Human and Digital Rights issues.
Find out where your candidates and parties stand on important issues like the role of the Human Rights Act in Scotland’s pandemic recovery and the use of digital surveillance technologies by Police Scotland.
Got a question for the candidates?
Use this form to submit a question about human and digital rights in advance.
In our first event as the Digital Rights Society at Edinburgh University, we'll be joined by Hannah Smethurst, researcher in privacy and educational tech at Newcastle Law School, to discuss the role of surveillance technology in higher education.
Due to the transition to online teaching in recent years, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, learning analytics and e-proctoring tools have grown in popularity in universities. However, these tools are often problematic: they discriminate (inadvertently or otherwise) by skin tone, disability and socio-economic status. Whether they are effective at all is heavily in dispute.
The University of Edinburgh makes use of these tools as well. As the Digital Rights Society, we investigated one specific feature, the Microsoft Office Productivity Score, and what its use means for the university's students.
Join us online on February 4th at 5pm GMT. Feel free to get in touch with questions for Hannah, either through our Meetup account or by contacting digitalrightssociety@fastmail.com. The link to the event will be posted here closer to the time.
Chris Pounder's Question Time: Ask Me Anything with a data protection expert
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Open Rights Group are delighted to be a hosting an evening with data protection expert Chris Pounder in collaboration with Protectors Of Data Scotland.
This event will be run like a Reddit AMA, Chris is knowledgeable across the data protection landscape from subject access rights to law enforcement processing and everything in between. This is your chance to get those burning data protection questions answered.
All are welcome. You don't need to be a data protection expert to attend (we already have one of those!) you just need to care about technology and rights and be ready to have a conversation.
If you had the opportunity to sit down with a data protection expert and ask them one key question - what would that be?
Drop your questions in the comments and we'll pick some of the best to ask Chris.
Join Open Rights Group's Executive Director Jim Killock to discuss the Government's Online Harms white paper. The discussion will be followed by a social at a nearby Pub.
The Government's Online Harms Whitepaper seeks to establish a duty of care on platforms to combat online harms. This model raises very real concerns about the rights impact of these proposals.
Jim will:
- present the findings of the new report released by Open Rights Group on content regulation proposals;
- discuss the problems with the formulation; and
- explain what comes next in the ever growing and moving debate on the responsibilities of social media companies.
Report - Content Regulation Part II - https://www.openrightsgroup.org/about/reports/org-regulation-report-ii
The event is free to attend, all are welcome.
No prior knowledge required just a commitment to being involved in the debates about the future of human rights.
How portable is portable? Exercising the GDPR's right to data portability
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In conjunction with the British Computer Society
Room 4.31,
University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum,
10 Crichton Street,
Edinburgh.
Speaker: Janis Wong, PhD researcher in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews
The new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) reinforces existing data subject rights in an attempt to rebalance power between citizens and the increasingly sizeable and international companies that are collecting and exploiting data from them. The GDPR introduces one new data subject right, and the focus of this talk, Article 20 the right to data portability (RtDP). The RtDP aims to allow data subjects to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.
As no empirical research has been done to assess the RtDP, we exercise the right by making 230 real-world data portability requests across a wide range of data controllers. The RtDP is interesting to study as it operates under a framework that aims to be technologically neutral while requiring specific technologies for implementation. Our research assesses the ease of the RtDP process from the perspective of the data subject and to examine the file formats returned by data controllers.
This talk will discuss the responses to 230 real-world data portability requests, and examine the file formats returned and difficulties in making and interpreting requests. We find variation in file formats, not all of which meet the GDPR requirements, and confusion amongst data controllers about the various GDPR rights. Legal and technical recommendations and future work for various stakeholders are also be discussed.
About the speaker:
Janis Wong is a PhD researcher in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews and is part of the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP). She also holds an LLB from the London School of Economics.
Her current research aims to understand why people have certain values towards privacy by exploring the mechanisms in which contextual values in the data science process can be represented through the interdisciplinary engagement of Computer Science and Management, as well as in political, legal, economic, and social areas. These values include, but are not limited to, ethical data sharing, algorithmic accountability, mitigating biases, the preservation of privacy for groups, and research ethics.
Learn about defamation and help reform Scots Law with Scottish PEN and Open Rights Group Scotland
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg was 12 years old when defamation law was last reformed in Scotland. In the 23 year that have followed, the law has not kept pace with how we speak to others, seek out information and publish our work. But now we are closer than ever to achieving reform and having laws in Scotland that protects everyone who wants to speak up and speak out.
In January the Scottish Government launched a public consultation to reform the law but it is important that as many people as possible respond, showing to the government that reform is needed and the public back this move. The more people that take part, the harder it will be to ignore!
A Consult-a-thon is an interactive workshop for the participants to respond to a public consultation in the session. By the end of the event the goal is for every participant to have learnt about reform and the consultation, as well as contributing their voice to the reform process.
At The Melting Pot, Scottish PEN, in partnership with Open Rights Group Scotland, will bring together leading experts and people who have experienced threats of defamation action to explain why reform is necessary, explore what reform looks like and to share their experiences of the existing laws. Joining us will be:
- Rosalind McInnes, the Principle Solicitor of BBC Scotland and author of Scots Law for Journalist;
- Andy Wightman, Scottish Green Party MSP who is currently defending a £750,000 defamation action;
- Stephen Blythe, the Community Guardian for Automattic and Internet Law & Policy LLM Course Co-ordinator at the University of Strathclyde.
What is a Consult-a-thon?
A Consult-a-thon is an interactive workshop for the participants to respond to a public consultation in the session. Throughout the event, experts will be in place to guide participants through each stage of the consultation, answer questions and facilitate debate on how to best protect free expression across Scotland. By the end of the event the goal is for every participant to have learnt about reform and the consultation, as well as contributing their voice to the reform process.
So if free expression is important to you and you would like to take part in the consultation please join us on 26th March to help us make the case for meaningful reform in Scotland.
Learn about defamation and help reform Scots Law with Scottish PEN and Open Rights Group Scotland
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg was 12 years old when defamation law was last reformed in Scotland. In the 23 year that have followed, the law has not kept pace with how we speak to others, seek out information and publish our work. But now we are closer than ever to achieving reform and having laws in Scotland that protects everyone who wants to speak up and speak out.
In January the Scottish Government launched a public consultation to reform the law but it is important that as many people as possible respond, showing to the government that reform is needed and the public back this move. The more people that take part, the harder it will be to ignore!
A Consult-a-thon is an interactive workshop for the participants to respond to a public consultation in the session. By the end of the event the goal is for every participant to have learnt about reform and the consultation, as well as contributing their voice to the reform process.
At The Melting Pot, Scottish PEN, in partnership with Open Rights Group Scotland, will bring together leading experts and people who have experienced threats of defamation action to explain why reform is necessary, explore what reform looks like and to share their experiences of the existing laws. Joining us will be:
- Rosalind McInnes, the Principle Solicitor of BBC Scotland and author of Scots Law for Journalist;
- Andy Wightman, Scottish Green Party MSP who is currently defending a £750,000 defamation action;
What is a Consult-a-thon?
A Consult-a-thon is an interactive workshop for the participants to respond to a public consultation in the session. Throughout the event, experts will be in place to guide participants through each stage of the consultation, answer questions and facilitate debate on how to best protect free expression across Scotland. By the end of the event the goal is for every participant to have learnt about reform and the consultation, as well as contributing their voice to the reform process.
So if free expression is important to you and you would like to take part in the consultation please join us on 26th March to help us make the case for meaningful reform in Scotland.
Learn about defamation and help reform Scots Law with Scottish PEN and Open Rights Group Scotland
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg was 12 years old when defamation law was last reformed in Scotland. In the 23 year that have followed, the law has not kept pace with how we speak to others, seek out information and publish our work. But now we are closer than ever to achieving reform and having laws in Scotland that protects everyone who wants to speak up and speak out.
In January the Scottish Government launched a public consultation to reform the law but it is important that as many people as possible respond, showing to the government that reform is needed and the public back this move. The more people that take part, the harder it will be to ignore!
A Consult-a-thon is an interactive workshop for the participants to respond to a public consultation in the session. By the end of the event the goal is for every participant to have learnt about reform and the consultation, as well as contributing their voice to the reform process.
At The Melting Pot, Scottish PEN, in partnership with Open Rights Group Scotland, will bring together leading experts and people who have experienced threats of defamation action to explain why reform is necessary, explore what reform looks like and to share their experiences of the existing laws. Joining us will be:
- Rosalind McInnes, the Principle Solicitor of BBC Scotland and author of Scots Law for Journalist;
- Andy Wightman, Scottish Green Party MSP who is currently defending a £750,000 defamation action;
- Paulo Quadros, a community Facebook group moderator in Strathaven who is defending a defamation action for content published on Facebook; and
- Andrew Tickell, Scottish PEN trustee, law lecturer and columnist for The National.
What is a Consult-a-thon?
A Consult-a-thon is an interactive workshop for the participants to respond to a public consultation in the session. Throughout the event, experts will be in place to guide participants through each stage of the consultation, answer questions and facilitate debate on how to best protect free expression across Scotland. By the end of the event the goal is for every participant to have learnt about reform and the consultation, as well as contributing their voice to the reform process.
So if free expression is important to you and you would like to take part in the consultation please join us on 26th March to help us make the case for meaningful reform in Scotland.
Join us Wednesday 13 March in Edinburgh when we'll hear from ORG’s executive director Jim Killock about the current state of digital censorship in the UK . We'll consider findings in ORG's new report on UK Internet regulation which reviews both formal and informal pracitices of digital censorship in the UK.
When it comes to web blocking, the same rules do not apply online as offline. Many powers and practices the government employs to remove online content would be deemed unacceptable if they were applied to offline publications.
We'll cover the following:
Formal censorship practices
Digital censorship in the UK - Remote presentation from Jim Killock
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Join us Wednesday 13 March in Edinburgh when we'll hear from ORG’s executive director Jim Killock about the current state of digital censorship in the UK . We'll consider findings in ORG's new report on UK Internet regulation which reviews both formal and informal pracitices of digital censorship in the UK.
When it comes to web blocking, the same rules do not apply online as offline. Many powers and practices the government employs to remove online content would be deemed unacceptable if they were applied to offline publications.
We'll cover the following:
Formal censorship practices
* Copyright blocking injunctions
* BBFC pornography blocking
* BBFC requests to “Ancillary Service Providers”
Informal censorship practices
* Nominet domain suspensions
* The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU)
* The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
* ISP content filtering
There will be an opportunity to ask questions and to find out how to take action to fight digital censorship.
Chris Pounder - An informed data subjects' view of the Data Protectin Act 2018
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Dr Chris Pounder is an established information law trainer.
The event will see Chris provide an informed data subjects view of the UK's Data Protection 2018. He will also grapple with the question "does the change in law matter, or do they just make companies rewrite their privacy policies and continue doing what they always have?"
The event will be a lively discussion and Chris' expertise and insight developed over years in the information law space should give anyone with an interest, or a concern, about data protection plenty to think about.
Come along with your questions for Chris.
The event is co-hosted with the NO2ID and ORG would like to thank NO2ID for their support.
All are welcome. You don't need to be a data protection expert to attend (we already have one of those!) you just need to care about technology and rights and be ready to have a conversation.
Many of these records are of innocent people. Something needs to change.
Police Scotland also hold 300,000 DNA profiles and 400,000 fingerprint records.
The Scottish Government has proposed a Biometric Data Bill that would enhance oversight of biometric data in Scotland.
Join Open Rights Group for a discussion on enhanced oversight of biometrics in Scotland.
Do the proposals go far enough?
Will the public have more power over the use of their biometric data?
What should the public look out for in the proposals and how can they support enhanced oversight?
We will be joined by John Scott QC, author of the Independent Advisory Group report on the use of biometrics in Scotland. John will discuss what he has learned as a result of the report, his attitude towards biometrics in the criminal justice space, and what the future may hold.
All are welcome, you don't need to be an expert in computer science (or forensic science!). You just need to care about the effect technology has on your human rights.
Police Scotland holds 1,000,000+ photographs, 300,000 DNA profiles and 400,000 fingerprint records. But many of these records are of innocent people. Something needs to change.
The Scottish Government has proposed a Biometric Data Bill that would enhance oversight of biometric data in Scotland.
Join Open Rights Group for a discussion on enhanced oversight of biometrics in Scotland.
Do the proposals go far enough?
Will the public have more power over the use of their biometric data?
What should the public look out for in the proposals and how can they support enhanced oversight?
We will be joined by John Scott QC, author of the Independent Advisory Group report on the use of biometrics in Scotland. John will discuss what he has learned as a result of the report, his attitude towards biometrics in the criminal justice space, and what the future may hold.
All are welcome, you don't need to be an expert in computer science (or forensic science!). You just need to care about the effect technology has on your human rights.
Biometrics in Scotland: Is improving oversight enough?
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Police Scotland hold 1,000,000+ photographs of unconvicted individuals
They also hold 300,000 DNA profiles.
and 400,000 fingerprint records.
The Scottish Government has proposed a Biometric Data Bill that would enhance oversight of biometric data in Scotland.
Something needs to change.
Join Open Rights Group for a discussion on enhanced oversight of biometrics in Scotland.
Do the proposals go far enough?
Will the public have more power over the use of their biometric data?
What should the public look out for in the proposals and how can they support enhanced oversight?
We will be joined by John Scott QC, author of the Independent Advisory Group report on the use of biometrics in Scotland. John will discuss what he has learned as a result of the report, his attitude towards biometrics in the criminal justice space, and what the future may hold.
All are welcome, you don't need to be an expert in computer science (or forensic science!) You just need to care about the effect technology has on your human rights.
ORG Social w/ Chief Operations Officer Martha Dark
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Come join us for an ORG social as Martha Dark our Chief Operations Officer is in Edinburgh. Learn about Martha's work, plans for expanding existing projects and new ideas too. Also catch up generally on the work ORG is doing across the UK.
Casual, informal, no barrier to entry. You don't need to be a technological professional or anything, you just need to care or have an interest about technology and human rights.
Could new plans to make Britain "the safest place in the world to be online" have unintended consequences? Hear from ORG campaigns manager Mike Morel, legal officer Alex Haydock, and ORG organiser Cian Heasley about how the Government is working with social media companies to decide acceptable standards for online content. Learn how heavy fines encourage the use of not-so-smart filters that can silence free speech, and how murky definitions of 'harmful content' give social media companies unprecedented control over free expression. No experience is necessary to attend this FREE event.
Join Open Rights Group's Scotland Director Matthew Rice in Edinburgh to hear about Scotland's unique challenges to digital rights including proposals for unsafe E-voting, the use of biometrics in policing, and Scotland's online ID system.
We'll also discuss ORG's plans for 2018 and how you can get involved.
No need to have been to a meetup before or have any expertise in any field. All you need to do is care about how technology and rights interact, and be interested to learn more and possibly contribute. Join us!
- ORG plans for 2018 from Scotland Director, Matthew Rice.
- Opportunities to discuss current affairs and topics of interest.
- Generate new ideas for public events and presentations.
- Update on Open Rights Group campaigning activities and how you can get involved.
No need to have been to a Meet-Up before, or have any expertise in any field. All you need to do is care about how technology and rights interact, and be interested to learn more and possibly contribute.
ORG Edinburgh Social w/ ORG Policy Director Javier Ruiz
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Open Rights Group's Policy Director Javier Ruiz is visiting Edinburgh. Let's meet to hang out and discuss some of the work he is leading on, catch up on other areas of work, and discuss news and topics of interest. Casual, informal, no barrier to entry. You don't need to be a technological professional or anything, you just need to care or have an interest about technology and human rights.
Expired changed:Not ExpiredEdited at by Sarah Lister