Know an amazing woman or girl in tech who’s working for access, skills, or leadership? Why not shine the light on them and nominate them for an EqualsInTech Award!

Equals is an initiative delivered by a committed partnership of ITU, UN Women, GSMA, ITC, and UN University joined by the Internet Society and over 20 corporate leaders, governments, non-profit organizations, communities, and individuals around the world working together to bridge the digital gender divide – by bringing women to tech, and tech to women.

The debate on encryption in the EU has followed a familiar path in pitting national security against concerns about civil liberties and privacy. On the one hand, Governments and intelligence agencies have increasingly claimed that the widespread use of encryption could threaten national security.

Eighty-three organizations and individuals from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States are insisting governments support strong encryption.

The letter, which was sent to government representatives in each of the above countries, called for public participation in any future discussions. It comes on the heels of the “Five Eyes” ministerial meeting in Ottawa, Canada earlier this week.

The Internet Society supports the substance of the letter.  

The 2017 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust paints a bleak picture of the current state of trust online. A majority of those surveyed said they are more concerned about their privacy than the year before, with an almost even split between those “much more concerned” and those only “somewhat more concerned”. When asked whether they agree with the statement “overall, I trust the Internet”, only 12% of respondents strongly agreed and a further 43% somewhat agreed. This means only a little more than half agreed that they trust the Internet, and some even expressed some reservation by choosing to respond “somewhat agree”.

Last week, the G20’s ministers responsible for the digital economy met in Düsseldorf to prepare this year´s G20 summit, scheduled for Hamburg, July 2017. Building on important strides initiated two years ago during the G20 summit in Antalya and based on the G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative (DEDCI), which was adopted last year under the Chinese G20 presidency, the Düsseldorf meeting adopted a “ G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Declaration” which includes also a “Roadmap for Digitalisation”.

One of the few regrets of Vint Cerf, who is often referred to as the 'father of the Internet', is the fact that encryption using public cryptography was not baked in the original ARPANET design. While the early Internet was meant to meet a number of requirements such as resilience and openness, encryption was not one of them. Some of this was because of the high cost associated with encryption, and some if it was for other reasons.

The government of Narendra Modi has set out ambitious goals for the digitalization of India, through a program called Digital India. It is hard to see this program get fully realized when state or local governments keep turning the Internet off.

Since January 2016, we have tracked that state governments have switched off the Net more than 34 times across India.

Sixty-two incidents of Internet shutdowns across 12 Indian states have been recorded by SFLC.in from 2012 till date.

In the country's northeast, in Nagaland, there was no Internet service at all from January 30 until February 19 .2017

In Kashmir, there have been 27 shutdowns since 2012, in a region market by long-standing conflicts.

RightsCon 2017 is kicking off today (29-31 March, Brussels) so we wanted to give you an update and also ask for your help amplifying our message.    

Restrictions to Internet access are on the rise globally. Data shows that between 2015 and 2016, the number of Internet shutdowns bumped up from 15 to 56 worldwide. Not only is this causing collateral damage to the Internet, but we’re also putting the society and economy at risk. If we don’t do anything, we are at serious risk of eroding the trust that people have in the Internet - to the point of no return.

Internet access is critical to support the enjoyment of Human Rights. The most commonly referenced example is freedom of expression, but its potential goes far beyond that. Day after day, it’s demonstrating its ability to support access to all sorts of opportunities – not least to support education for all children facing emergencies and crises, another fundamental Human Right. This is what’s been discussed this week at the Mobile Learning Week.

Today, the Internet Society hosted a special Community Forum, “Youth on the Internet.” Hundreds of participants from across 6 continents joined the conversation to share their views on what the Internet means to them.

A special thanks to our Next Generation Leaders who were panellists - Evelyn Namara (Uganda), Veronica Arroyo (Peru), Yuza Setiawan (Indonesia) for a vibrant discussion on topics such as how young people can address privacy and security concerns, and how the Internet can help close the gender gap.

In times like these, it’s easy to be paranoid.

Almost every day there is a new story about an app, a TV or a child’s toy that is collecting too much data, or a massive data breach, or the latest kind of ransomware doing the rounds of the Internet.

We may not know the specifics, but we do know that somewhere out there someone is tracking us online: in fact, most of the data monetization machine is invisible to consumers -- the individuals whose data fuels it.

All this has, understandably, left many people wary. Why WOULD you trust someone or something that is gathering information on you with no real insight into how it will be used? And, no real sense of how your data will be handled.

Last weekend, millions joined the Women’s March in the US and across the world. They stood up for their rights, and the rights of everyone. We need to do the same on the Internet.

The Internet gives everyone a voice, but we need people to protect those voices. 

Online harassment and cyber bullying are real. And, some groups are targeted more than others.