Open Rights Group

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Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· 23d

A new Prime Minister is a fresh opportunity to stand up to Big Tech. We must break the excessive power that a handful of US companies have over our lives. We've joined with partner organisations to end this dependency and unlock British innovation. Read ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/app/uploads/...

Dear Prime Minister, You have inherited an economy that has been quietly wired to serve a handful of dominant US-based technology firms. You also have the rare opportunity to tap into the public mood by curbing their excessive power over the economy and our lives. A critical break with the UK’s current relationship with dominant Big Tech and AI monopolies is core to a successful premiership. The abuse of structural and market power of a small number of Big Tech companies is a root cause of many of the problems the UK public face: huge potential losses in tax receipts because of firms avoiding paying their fair share in taxes, an economy that feels increasingly out of reach for most, the extraction of value hindering real growth and innovation, and meaningful climate action being undermined. Our call to you is not for an anti-tech response, but an anti-monopoly one. Such a position would help unlock the British innovation and growth that these monopolies are currently suppressing.

Use public procurement as an industrial-strategy tool.

You have duly spoken about bringing "good growth in every postcode." We share that ambition, however a different kind of growth cannot take root while a handful of Big Tech monopolies sit astride the digital economy, extracting value from our communities, returning it to shareholders while harming the environment. Fair competition is therefore not just beneficial to consumers, but one of the essential drivers of long-term growth and the improvement of living-standards. We would welcome the chance to discuss these points further, and to support you in turning it into policy.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· 26d

The ICO needs an overhaul of its regulatory and enforcement posture. The government has an opportunity to restore effective oversight of data protection rule. It's essential for trustworthy public sector delivery, innovation that benefits workers, and a digital economy that works for the public.

5 steps to an effective ICO
Be accountable
Give people the right to appeal.
Put the public first
Make its primary responsibility to enforce the law, investigate and remedy infringements.
Be independent
Make sure it's protected from government interference.
End corruption
Stop the revolving door between the regulator and Big Tech.
Let public interest organisations represent the public
Groups like ORG should be able to bring challenges.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· 28d

Coming up on Thursday, we've partnered with @sflcin.bsky.social for a discussion on age assurance. Find out what the global push for social media bans and age assurance systems means for our rights from an expert panel. 🗓️ 16 July 🕧️ 3-4:30pm BST 💻️ Online Register ➡️ form.sflc.in/what-age-ass...

What age assurance means for the future of digital rights, online safety, and the Internet at large.

Speakers:

James Baker, Platform Power and Free
Expression Program Manager – Open Rights Group

Nicholas Williams, Policy and Campaigns Officer – Index on Censorship

Moritz Katzner, General Director, European
Affairs & U.S. Advisory – Stop Killing Games

Paige Collings, Senior Speech and Privacy
Activist – Electronic Frontier Foundation

Date: 16th July 2026
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 PM IST
Mode: Online

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· 29d

Today we’ve joined over 20 organisations to urge the UK Government to protect children online without making the internet less secure by restricting VPNs. Child safety and security aren’t competing objectives – we need both. Read our letter ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/publications... #SafeAndSecure

Protecting children online is an objective we all share. The challenge is ensuring measures strengthen child safety without weakening the privacy and security millions of people rely on every day, including children.

As organisations committed to a safe, secure, and rights-respecting internet, we are concerned by suggestions that the Government restrict virtual private networks (VPNs). VPNs are cybersecurity tools. They help people protect personal information on public Wi-Fi, enable secure remote working, allow students to access education networks safely, and help small businesses protect their systems. VPNs are essential for human rights defenders and journalists, domestic abuse survivors, the LGBTQ+ community, and others at heightened risk online.

The evidence does not support assumptions that young people use VPNs to bypass age restrictions. Ofcom’s research found that only around 3% of children had used VPNs to access content meant for older audiences. Evidence from Australia shows children are much more likely to get around age checks by not being asked, giving false information, or even drawing on a moustache.

Restricting VPNs would undercut the security and privacy of millions, without making children safer. Age-gating VPNs would require everyone to surrender sensitive personal information simply to access tools designed to protect privacy. Blocking VPN traffic reliably is technically unfeasible, and risks blocking employers, schools and public authorities using VPNs from accessing parts of the web. This would push people away from compliant and reputable VPN providers toward unregulated, data-exploiting services that are harder to oversee, leaving them less secure.

The Government should focus on policy interventions that address the root causes of online harms: strong enforcement of platform obligations, better parental controls, investment in digital literacy, and safety- and privacy-by-design obligations.

Children deserve an Internet that is safe, private, and secure. Those objectives should reinforce one another, not come into conflict.

Yours sincerely,

• Amnesty International
• Big Brother Watch
• Defend Digital Me
• ExpressVPN
• Global Partners Digital
• Index on Censorship
• Internet Infrastructure Coalition
• Internet Society
• Internet Society UK
• lnternews
• IPVanish
• Liberty
• Mozilla
• Mullvad VPN
• Mysterium VPN
• NordVPN
• Open Rights Group
• Proton
• Reporters Without Borders
• Stop Killing Games
• Stop Killing Internet
• Surfshark
• Tuta
• VPN Trust Initiative

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jul 2

Data transfers to the US have been the centre of controversy for decades. It concerned the protection of personal data from US mass surveillance programmes. That's why the EU-US framework requires oversight to be independent in order to protect the agencies' ability to enforce legal standards.

A timeline
2019 – Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) initiative introduced by Japan.
2022 – Biden signs an Executive Order establishing a mechanism to protect personal data transfers to the US, and restrictions to the President’s authority to conduct surveillance programmes.
2022 – OECD Declaration on Government Access to Personal Data Held by Private Sector Entities.
2023– DFTT endorsed by G7 leaders.
2023– European Commission adopted an adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, legalising transfers of personal data between the EU and the US.
2025– Trump tries to fire the head of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Slaughter.
2026– Supreme Court overturns precedent of Humphrey's Executor that prevents Presidents from removing members of independent agencies at will, finding the dismissal of Rebecca Slaughter without cause was lawful.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 25

Social media bans don't work. They just make things worse. In Australia, for those teens who haven't bypassed the restrictions, their access to news has been curtailed. How does this square with giving votes to 16 year olds? Children have rights to free expression too. ORG's James Baker explains.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

There's no doubt that changes to digital policy and economics are difficult. However they are fundamental in the current political situation. Under new leadership, the government must take this chance to change course for the better. Become a member to support ORG ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/join/

Our suggestions don’t break Labour’s manifesto commitments. They’d help reset digital policy in favour of the UK economy and better value in government spending to improve our social balance and protect our democracy.

Become an ORG member – openrightsgroup.org/join

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

8️⃣ Transparency in public policy. Critically, we need to know what the government is thinking to engage constructively with them and deliver better policy outcomes. Read our blog on how systems thinking in social media policy can address online harms ⬇️ www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/the-soc...

Transparency in UK public policy.

Show us your thinking – The UK government says that they promote systemic policy analysis. This is used to understand the complicated interactions that take place in difficult areas of policy, using ‘systems thinking’ and ‘futures thinking’.

This is exactly what is needed, so that we can have grown up policy discussions. However, little of this work seems to reach the public domain.

Government needs to make clear its understanding and analysis of the digital policy landscape. This way, we can better engage with the government to deliver policy that tackles the root causes of our political situation.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

7️⃣ Change the online safety approach. Policies have targeted users and left the business model of social media platforms that generate online harms untouched. With digital ID checks and the social media ban, our privacy and free expression rights have taken the brunt. Break Big Tech instead.

Change the approach to online safety.

Break Big Tech – We must tackle the concentration of informational power in social media tech giants and AI companies. So far, safety measures have punished users instead.

User empowerment – We need to tackle the power of social media directly, by empowering users to control the information they receive and building platforms like BlueSky and Mastodon. Government and Labour politicians should publish to these networks, so people aren’t forced to use X or Facebook to receive government social media updates.

Shift ad-spend – The next administration should shift government ad budgets to local news sites, rather than funding Meta and Google.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

6️⃣ Ditch Digital ID. The government's will-they won't-they digital ID scheme is a solution in search of a problem. What it will create is a digital surveillance infrastructure that'll expand into more and more areas of life and further marginalise people. It needs to be ditched for good.

Ditch the Digital ID scheme.

Stop digital surveillance – It’s still unclear why digital ID is government policy or what it would really deliver. Digital ID appears to have been promoted because of the personal desires of Tony Blair, combined with the illusion that it could help with the evasion of work permits.

In our view, Digital ID remains a solution in search of a problem, that threatens to poison the next Labour prime minister’s relationship with the public. Combined with AI, Digital ID could be used to limit access to public services and automate decisions using AI. This a recipe for reinforcing systemic discrimination.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

5️⃣ Roll back the digital hostile environment. The Home Office is deploying flawed and biased tech with little transparency for migrants and refugees. ORG has called for a ban on the use of AI in asylum decisions, plus facial age estimation tech and the roll-out of the error-prone eVisa scheme.

Roll back the digital hostile environment.

Migrant digital justice – The Home Office’s approach of creating hostility to migrants has had a deep and lasting impact on UK politics. It has fuelled the politics of hate. ORG’s upcoming report shows that borders and migration policy is being digitised in ways that are dehumanising and creates systemic rights violations, by treating the most vulnerable people as potential threats. These changes are fuelling an AI and border surveillance industry that’s dependent on political hostility to migrants.

A holistic approach – The UK’s foreign and climate policy risks increase the instability that pushes people to migrate.The UK needs to take a holistic view of migration.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

4️⃣ Regulate AI and ban predictive policing. Despite being in the Labour manifesto, the Starmer government has failed to regulate AI. AI is increasingly used in benefits, policing and borders, government and society. But they cause real harms to real people in the name of alleged efficiency.

Regulate AI and ban predictive policing.

Bring in safeguards for the use of AI – There’s no legal framework to make sure that public or private sector use of AI does not breach our human rights and dignity. Yet biased and inaccurate decisions are a natural feature of technologies that are statistical and correlative in nature. Regulation of AI was a Labour manifesto pledge, which curiously disappeared in the face of lobbing and trade agreements with the US. But it remains necessary.

Prioritise public safety – Without a legal framework, government will continue to deploy ill-judged systems like employing AI in immigration decisions, expanding facial recognition and rolling out predictive policing tech that targets and criminalises whole communities.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

3️⃣ Reset the regulators. The government has hobbled the data regulator and the Competition and Markets Authority, pushing them to go easy on market abuse. This has resulted in a failure to take action when our rights are harmed and has failed to act in the interest of UK businesses.

Reset the regulators in the UK.

End regulatory capture – The Starmer government took the view that to attract billions of US investment in data centres and AI, they should hold back the regulators. The ICO was given duties to balance rights and business growth, while the CMA was given a “strategic steer” to avoid dissuading monopolists from investing.

Strengthen competition and protect data – UK business throughout the economy would benefit from CMA action to increase cloud competition and reduce excessive charges. The ICO’s failure to regulate both the private sector and government has been disastrous for the most vulnerable in our society, such as with the eVisa scheme for people who have the right to live and work in the UK.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

2️⃣ Reset UK Digital Sovereignty. This means having control over our critical tech, national infrastructure and digital policy-making. By ridding ourselves of US tech giants like Palantir and using open source for our systems, we can have greater independence and more competition in UK tech.

Reset UK Digital Sovereignty.

Greater autonomy – Governments across the EU are building back their state capacity to supervise and build software systems that they own and control through open source. The State is able to manage contractors and own what they build, rather than having consultancies as the experts and contractors owning and controlling software systems.

No more Palantirs – Contracts with Palantir should be exited as fast as possible. There are already multiple open source products that federate data for governments, and Manchester’s NHS have delivered their own federated data system for their region. That’s Manchesterism in action. This is not an impossible task.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 24

1️⃣ Reset the UK digital economy. From Capgemini and Fujitsu to AWS and Microsoft, Big Tech has gouged the UK out of millions for their services. Not to mention tax evasion. Ending this rip-off and building the UK tech sector through open source will avoid depleting the UK State and economy.

Reset the UK digital economy.

End the Big Tech rip-off – Burnham says he wants to end ‘40-years of neo-liberalism’. This process of siphoning wealth from government and the economy is nowhere more alive than in the digital sector. AWS and Microsoft have been ripping off both British businesses and the government to the tune of hundreds of millions of inflated cloud charges, according to investigations by the Competition and Markets Authority. US firms are using tax efficiency measures to ensure that they don’t pay their way towards the maintenance of basic state functions.

Breaking our digital dependency – Ending our dependence on foreign tech for our digital infrastructure and building the UK’s domestic tech sector, especially through open source, is an easy win.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 23

A regulator that fails to deter bad practices isn't worth having. The ICO has allowed a light touch regime for data protection that increases breaches. ORG has set out how we must #ResetTheICO so that it enforces our data rights. Sign our petition ➡️ action.openrightsgroup.org/reset-ico

Five steps to ensure an effective data regulator.

Be accountable – Give people the right to appeal.

Put the public first – Make it the regulator’s primary responsibility to enforce the law, investigate and remedy infringements.

Be independent – Make sure the regulator is protected from government interference.

End corruption – Stop the revolving door between the regulator and Big Tech to ensure an arms-length relationship.

Let public interest organisations represent the public – Groups like ORG should be able to bring challenges.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 23

John Edwards has overseen multiple failings, including the so-called public sector approach to enforcement. This relied on non-enforceable written notices that the law had been broken without any regulatory action to remedy infringements or hold law-breakers to account. We must #ResetTheICO.

Quote from Jim Killock, ORG Exec Director: "John Edward's departure is a chance for the Government to reset the regulators' approach of providing data protection in name only.

Parliament must ensure that the future Commission is run by professionals who want the law enforced, including against government data failures."

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

VPNs can help protect children's security online too. They aren’t just used to avoid content blocks. Restrictions will deter people from using a core cybersecurity tool and create greater risks. Privacy is online safety #ProtectVPNs ✊️ Sign the petition ➡️ action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-governm...

Image of a mobile phone held in a pair of hands with the thumbs over the screen with a neon effects in blue and purple.

Text: Sign the petition – Protect VPN use in the UK.

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-government-protect-vpn-use-uk

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

The only way to create an ironclad age verification system is extreme digital authoritarianism. Restrictions on VPNs are an attack on the open Internet and our ability to be secure online – the antithesis of online safety. Read our briefing ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/publications... #ProtectVPNs

The only way to restrict VPNs is authoritarian.

Trying to ban or age-gate VPNs because they might be used to bypass digital ID age checks would be as unworkable as banning web browsers because they allow access to adult content.

Attempts to have a perfect age verification system that no-one can get around would involve an extreme level of digital authoritarianism.

To comprehensively prevent circumvention of age checks, a State would need to remove the ability of users to install and use software on their computer and try to prevent the Internet from providing open connectivity.

The government must not blow up our cybersecurity and the open Internet with technologically illiterate and authoritarian attacks on VPN use.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

Aside from restrictions, it's been suggested that sites should detect VPN use and bounce users into age verification. This would be technically flawed, privacy-invasive and would exclude lawful Internet users because VPN traffic can look identical to ordinary encrypted web traffic. #ProtectVPNs

Requiring sites to detect VPNs won't work.

The Age Verification Providers Association propose that sites age-gating content should detect VPN use and direct it to their services.

Technical infeasibility – Detection relies on blacklists of commercial VPN servers, which are incomplete and easily outpaced by new services.

False positives and exclusion – It would prevent law-abiding users, such as remote workers, people in high-risk environments, or families securing their Internet connection from getting online.

Privacy risks – This would require intrusive traffic analysis, undermining privacy and data protection.

Creating diplomatic rows – Users in countries that don't have age restrictions would also be caught up in it.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

Banning or blocking VPNs will shatter cybersecurity in a self-defeating attempt to make the unworkable workable. Creating uncertainty around core Internet infrastructure could undermine the UK’s credibility as a stable place for digital businesses and security innovation. #ProtectVPNs

Restricting VPNs is almost impossible.

DIY VPNs – Anyone can create a VPN on widely available cloud servers. This ability is built directly into the Linux OS and many consumer routers. Private, self-hosted VPNs can't be feasibly tracked or blocked.

Integration with operating systems – VPN functionality is a standard feature of Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
Blocking or regulating it would require restricting core Internet protocols, with catastrophic knock-on effects for business and personal security.

Global nature of the Internet – Users will be driven to offshore providers, which would create compliance headaches for businesses, while leaving determined individuals unaffected by domestic restrictions on VPN use.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

VPNs aren’t a meaningful threat to age verification measures. ⚫ 6-12 year olds are very unlikely to use them due to technological and economic barriers. ⚫ Older teens already know other workarounds. Banning or restricting VPNs is overreach. The price is our privacy and security. #ProtectVPNs

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

An adult using a VPN doesn't impact the safety of a child online. Adults use VPNs because they don’t trust age verification providers with their personal data. Something the government has refused to deal with by regulating the industry to ensure high standards of data protection. #ProtectVPNs

Why are more adults turning to VPNs?
The increase in VPN downloads suggests the public are wary of sharing their personal information with age verification providers.

That's because the industry is unregulated and companies are based in other countries that may have weaker data protection laws.

Also, the data gathered from ID checks can end up being repurposed for uses such as targeted advertising.

Asking adults to hand over highly sensitive ID documents or biometric data to unfamiliar companies goes against many years of cybersecurity advice around being careful when handing over personal data online.

Despite calls from ORG for age verification providers to be regulated, the government has done nothing except expand digital ID age checks into more areas of the Internet.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 19

Treating VPNs as a 'problem' is foolish. They help parents manage online risks, support secure remote working, protect people in abusive situations, and provide a lifeline to people in repressive States. MPs themselves use them! Attacking VPNs throws the baby out with the bath water. #ProtectVPNs

What are Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)?

With a VPN, people can get on the Internet via a secure, encrypted connection to a remote server.

Cybersecurity and data privacy – VPNs mask your IP address to help prevent data tracking and unauthorised access, protecting users from data theft, DDoS attacks, identity fraud and surveillance.

This is important when using public WiFi or remote working and some VPN services are bundled with parental filters to restrict harmful websites at the network level.

Free expression – In places like Russia and China, VPNs let people access news, social media and resources blocked by governments.

This far outweighs the narrow concern that VPNs could be used to bypass age checks.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 18

We must ban the use of AI tools in the asylum process. There are ways to clear the backlog of asylum cases and raise standards. These tools aren't the answer. The government must not automate the hostile environment. Write to your MP ➡️ action.openrightsgroup.org/ban-ai-tools... #RefugeeWeek

Sign the petition: Ban Al Tools in Asylum

action.openrightsgroup.org/ ban-ai-tools-asylum-decision-making

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 18

The hostile environment is being automated. Immigration enforcement is being embedded into daily life, but most MPs are staying silent. That silence gives the government cover to push through unlawful, discriminatory policies unchallenged. MPs must show courage to demand change this #RefugeeWeek!

The need to show political courage.

The theme of this year's Refugee Week is courage.

But despite questions about the legality of using Al tools, the Home Office has pressed ahead anyway and rolled out their use across the asylum system.

So, we're calling on MPs to show courage, to set aside the political noise, and demand that everyone in the UK is treated fairly and lawfully.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 18

AI tools in asylum decision-making are being deployed first, while safeguards, oversight and transparency are treated as secondary. This carries serious risks to fairness, accountability and the protection of rights. That's why its use could be UNLAWFUL. ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/publications...

The lawfulness of the Al in aslyum cases.

The Home Office is likely to be failing to ensure that decisions affecting fundamental rights are lawful and fair.

• Lack of transparency
Asylum applicants are not being told that Al is being used in assessments of their applications, so they cannot correct errors.

• Al Playbook standards
The Home Office is failing in its duty to be open and collaborative when deploying Al.

• No Equality Impact Assessment
The tools may not meet the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 18

The use of AI tools to clear the asylum backlog prioritises speed over accuracy. 23% of caseworkers lacked full confidence in the output of these tools. The Home Office has pressed ahead anyway and rolled out its use across the asylum system. Read more ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/publications...

The problem with Al in the asylum process.

There's a potential breach of data protection law if the ACS tool produces inaccurate summaries of applicants' personal data that they do not have the opportunity to correct.

The Home Office's own evaluation of the Al tools found:

• 9% of Al-generated summaries of the ACS were so flawed they had to be removed from the pilot.

• 5% of users of the APS were "not confident in tool accuracy".

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 18

AI tools are being rolled out without meaningful transparency or governance. This is alarming given that they are rewriting what people say in interviews and key information that'll determine the outcome of an asylum application. Find out more ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/saving-...

The use of Al tools in asylum decisions.

Al tools create a new text of interviews and materials. They choose what to include and exclude, rather than simply indexing or organising the existing source information.

• Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS)
uses ChatGPT-4 to summarise asylum interview transcripts into concise summary documents.

• Asylum Policy Search (APS)
summarises country Policy and Information Notes, guidance documents, and Country of Origin Information reports.

Open Rights Group@openrightsgroup· Jun 18

A legal opinion for ORG raises issues over the legality of the use of AI tools in the UK asylum system. Applicants aren't being informed of its use by decision-makers, nor being given the opportunity to correct errors in AI-generated summaries. Read more ➡️ www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releas...