GreenNet Civil Society Internet Rights Project:
Internet Rights Toolkit
Toolkit Briefings
The purpose of the 'toolkit briefings' is to explore areas relating to the use of the Internet and Internet rights. The briefings cover a wide range of issues of general and specialist interest. They are available as web pages, but also in Acrobat and other file formats so that they can be printed and supplied as hard copies.Within the briefings there are a number of conventions regarding links:
- Links in blue are links to other web pages or web sites.
- Link in purple are links to the footnotes that accompany
the particular briefing you are looking at.
- Links in green are links to the glossary and cross-referencing index page to the toolkit briefings - following these links will provide you with a short definition of the term being used, and also links to other parts of the whole series of toolkit briefings where the same term is discussed.
Currently there are fifteen briefings available in the 'toolkit' series:
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1. An Introduction to the Internet
"How it works and what it can do for you."
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This is a general introduction for those
new to the Internet. It explains basic concepts of what the Internet is, how it works, and the different
services that are available for you to use. For those new to the Internet, this briefing provides a good
starting point to begin working through the other briefings in this series. It also introduces other more
technical areas such as scripting, multimedia and streaming/web casting.
2. Data Protection
"The protection of privacy and your rights to information held by others about you."
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A review of the laws on data protection, and the rights of the individual to find out
about those organisations who hold personal information about them. The different types
of personal information protected under the law are outlined. There are also examples of
how to find out the contact details of an organisation holding personal information, and
how to request copies of the information they hold about you. There are also details of
how to contact the Data Protection Commissioner to complain when you feel that the
information collected about you has been misused.
3. Using Encryption and Digital Signatures
"How to protect privacy, and your identity, online."
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The use of encryption and digital signatures
to protect your privacy and identity. The briefing looks at how encryption works. In particular, the use
of the popular public key encryption program PGP. It also reviews the laws on the use of encryption, and
the potential future developments in the use of encrypted services.
4. E-Consumer Protection
"Buying and carrying out business transactions online."
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How to ensure that you can enforce your
rights as a consumer online. The briefing outlines the requirements of the Distance Selling Regulations,
and how they apply to buying goods online. Links are also provided to other guides and accreditation
schemes that help you ensure the organisations you buy online from will be able to deliver the goods.
5. Privacy and Surveillance
"How and when organisations and the state can monitor your actions."
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The use of surveillance and
data profiling techniques by the state and corporations, and how it may affect your privacy. The briefing
looks at the way in which both passive and directed surveillance are being used to monitor the activities
of citizens, and what is done with the data this produces. It also considers how the routine surveillance
of the Internet is becoming a key part of the security activities of states through mechanisms such as the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and the Cybercrime Convention.
6. Campaigning Online
"Using the Internet to get your point across."
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Documents the growing significance of the Internet
as a media for campaigning and lobbying. It considers how the different elements of the Internet can be
used for developing online campaigns and collaborative working, and provides examples of current successful
online campaigns. It also considers the increasing importance of multimedia to the development of
online campaigns, especially the streaming of video.
7. Intellectual Property
"Protecting ideas in the new information economy."
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Intellectual property laws are the
core of the new information society. This briefing looks at what intellectual property is, how the laws
work, and ways in which problems with intellectual property can be avoided. The briefing also considers the
challenge to the traditional notion of intellectual property by the open content movement.
8. Computer Crime
"The law on the misuse of computers and networks."
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A look at the law on computer crime,
and how it applies to the deliberate or accidental use of computers. The briefing looks at the Computer
Misuse Act, as well as other legislation on fraud, forgery and racial or sexual abuse.
9. Expression and Defamation
"Your rights to free speech online, and when free speech transgresses the boundary of defamation"
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A review of the rights to free expression and privacy, and when expression can cross
the boundaries fo the law and become defamation. The laws on slander and libel are outlined. There
is also an outline of the use of defamation actions to curb legitimate free speech, and on the
increasing use of blocking and filtering systems to limit free expression.
10. Electronic Rights in the Workplace
"Changes to workers rights and employers responsibilities in the new information economy."
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A short briefing on the rights of employees in the workplace. It covers the rights of those employed
to use information services, and the regard to be had to their privacy by employers. It also covers
the role of freelance and contract workers in the IT industry.
11. Media Regulation and Convergence
"The impact of the new digital media on society."
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An examination of how digital technology is changing the nature of the mass media. Also, how
the convergence of different communications technologies will provide civil society with a new
opportunity to access the mass media. It also considers the current UK and European policies on
regulating the new digital media, and the role civil society has in this process in lobbying for
open access to the new digital media.
12. Civil Rights and Internet Regulation
"How proposals to control the Internet affect our civil rights."
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A discussion of the need to extend the existing scope of human rights into the digital domain.
How the current human rights legislation supports the use of the Internet by civil society, but how
this use is being increasingly restricted by corporations and states afraid of the power it gives.
The content of the APC's Internet Rights Charter, and the process by which it was devised, is also
discussed.
13. Interception and Surveillance
"The RIP Act and its implications for individuals and service providers."
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The impacts on privacy of new laws requiring communications service providers to copy traffic
data and other information to the security services. In particular, the threat that the mass
collection and databasing of traffic data represents to civil liberties. The briefing also
reviews the legal position of service providers to comply with the government's orders to tap
communications, the new legal principle of 'common purpose', and the implications at the European
level of the Cybercrime Convention.
14. Keeping Your System Secure
"Basic information on how to protect systems and networks when working online."
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A brief guide to information and network security for the average Internet users, for those
with web site, and for those who run servers connected to the Internet. It looks at basic
security measures for connecting to the Internet and running a web site. It also considers the
range of threats to those who run computers continuously connected to the Internet.
15. New Terrorism Legislation
"How new terrorism legislation may criminalise the work of protest groups."
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A review of the new terrorism legislation introduced in the UK, and its implications for
protest action. In particular, how the approach of the UK on terrorism has shifted from defining
terrorism as violence against the state to any type of action that involves some type of property
damage and that'seeks to change the mind of government'.
Toolkit Briefings Glossary/Cross-Reference Index
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This is a combined glossary and cross-reference index. This allows you to look-up particular
terms used in the toolkit briefings, and then jump directly to the parts of the briefings where
that term is discussed.