Bits of Freedom: Do your bit!

Their timing is quite unfortunate. With Steve Jobs passing away, it’s hard to get through on Facebook and Twitter, so I thought I’d help them out a bit and shamelessly promote Bits of Freedom on the MoM blog.

Bits of Freedom (BoF) is the Dutch digital rights organization, focusing on privacy and communicatios freedom in the digital age. BoF strives to influence legislation and self regulation, on a national and European level. BoF is one of the founders and member of European Digital Rights (EDRi). (BoF website)

Today, October 6, 2011 is Donation Day for Bits of Freedom. they work with a very small staff, but a large group of volunteers. They’ve launched several projects to make us aware of privacy concerns and our rights in a digital age. One example is PIM, which stands for (in Dutch) Privacy Inzage Machine. This tools helps you contact companies to show you the personal data they’ve collected on you. Also, they work on the Zwartboek: Datalekken project, in which they reveal cases of companies who lose or accidentally distribute personal data they have stored.

All in all, in an age where our internet traffic is constantly tracked, Facebook wants to know more and more about us and our telephone providers use Deep Packet Inspection on our smart phones, an organisation like Bits of Freedom deserves all the support we can give.

In addition: If you donate today, you get a free t-shirt!