A vibrant digital economy

So where do we turn? We need our communications to be safely away from spying eyes and unjustified government intrusion. But we also need business models that don’t depend on strong-arming people into accepting data extraction and exploitation. Subscription models and paying for services is acceptable, just not when it is used to bully people into consenting to something they otherwise wouldn’t. 

And offering additional paid-for services, as WhatsApp do around the world, is also ok – so long as it’s not done to turn WhatsApp into an ‘everything app’ that dominates the landscape. That’s bad for consumers and bad for a vibrant digital economy. The Colombian Constitutional Court has recently ruled against so-called ‘zero rating’ of WhatsApp because of its effect on net neutrality and freedom of expression.

Time and again, new technology has empowered people and revolutionised our society. Getting it right is hard, but we know what we want to avoid: government hacking, secret backdoors, data exploitation and overly powerful corporations. And what we need: access to encrypted services that are affordable, non-exploitative, secure, non-dominant.

At times, that feels like walking a tightrope. With your help, we will keep fighting for tech infrastructure, privacy laws and market regulation that work for people, for society, and for freedom both online and off.