Electronic Privacy Information Center

From Free net encyclopedia

Electronic Privacy Information Center or EPIC is a public interest research group in Washington D.C.. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. EPIC operates a West Coast Office<ref>West Coast Office</ref> in San Francisco, CA, that focuses on consumer privacy issues.

EPIC works to achieve these goals by:

Researching privacy, free speech, and civil liberties issues
Presenting its findings at conferences and in publications, as well as through its Internet policy site<ref>Official Website</ref> and the twice-monthly <ref name=alert>EPIC Alert</ref> newsletter
Testifying before Congress on privacy and civil liberties issues
Obtaining and publishing government documents through the Freedom of Information Act
Assisting attorneys, consumer organizations, and civil liberties organizations on lawsuits in its fields of expertise
Testifying before government agencies
Filing comments and complaints with government agencies

1 Background
2 Affiliated Groups
3 Organizational Structure
4 Criticisms
5 Publications
6 References

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Background

EPIC was founded in 1994 by David Banisar, Marc Rotenberg, and David Sobel, as a joint project of the Fund for Constitutional Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Early on, the organization focused on government surveillance and cryptography issues, such as the Clipper Chip and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. After becoming an independent non-profit organization in November of 2000, EPIC has continued to work on government surveillance issues, especially after the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001, and on a growing number of consumer privacy issues, such as identity theft, the national Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003, and commercial data mining. EPIC also works to increase government transparency by filing Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain and make public government documents. EPIC has also been active in promoting secure, verifiable, and privacy-guarding methods for electronic voting. In 2004, EPIC opened EPIC West, its San Francisco office that supports state-based privacy initiatives.

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Affiliated Groups

EPIC works with several non-governmental organization (NGO) coalitions, including Privacy International<ref>Privacy International</ref>, the Internet Free Expression Alliance<ref>Internet Free Expression Alliance</ref>, the Global Internet Liberty Campaign<ref>Global Internet Liberty Campaign</ref>, the Internet Democracy Project, and the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue<ref>Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue</ref>. EPIC also maintains The Privacy Site<ref>Privacy Site</ref> and Observing Surveillance<ref>Observing Surveillance</ref>.

In addition, EPIC coordinates the Public Voice<ref>Public Voice</ref> coalition, launched in 1996 to promote public and NGO participation in decisions concerning the future of the Internet, as well as the National Committee for Voting Integrity<ref>National Committee for Voting Integrity</ref>, which was established to promote voter-verified balloting and to preserve privacy protections for elections in the United States.

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Organizational Structure

EPIC is registered as a non-profit Public Charity, and receives most of its funding from organizational and individual contributors, as well as through grants and the sale of its publications.

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Criticisms

Some critics of the organization claim that EPIC's positions on consumer privacy lead to inefficient government regulation that burdens industry needlessly and increases red tape. Some libertarian organizations state that information gathered by marketers and advertisers can lower costs, with savings passed to consumers. Template:Fact

Other critics of EPIC's stance on government surveillance claim that certain privacy rights must take a lower priority to ensuring national and civil security, and that overzealous protection of privacy rights can aid criminal and terrorist organizations. Template:Fact

EPIC has also occasionally been criticized by both opponents and supporters for what are seen as its extreme positions on privacy issues. The June 1995 issue of WIRED magazine [1] quoted a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation as saying that EPIC "made everybody else at the table look moderate. It's the old good-cop-bad-cop routine."

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Publications

EPIC maintains and publishes its newsletter, the EPIC Alert<ref name=alert/>, every two weeks.

EPIC also publishes several books on privacy and open government, including "Privacy and Human Rights," "Filters and Freedom," "The Privacy Law Sourcebook," "Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws," "The Public Voice WSIS Sourcbook," and the "Consumer Law Sourcebook."

Other publications include reports on internet privacy for web surfers, an analysis of industry self-regulation, and how Internet filtering software can block innocuous sites.

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