Electronic Frontier Finland – Effi ry (Effi) is a Finnish

on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

organization founded in 2001 by Herkko Hietanen, Ville Oksanen and Mikko Välimäki. It had about 1,600 members at the end of 2014. While not formally affiliated with the U.S.-based

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

, the two organizations share many of their goals. Effi is a member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign and a founding member of European Digital Rights (EDRi). Effi's stated aim is to protect and promote

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

and

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

as well as in Finnish society in general. Among other things, Effi has lobbied for effective

anti-spam Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam (unsolicited bulk email). No technique is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade-offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate email ( false positives) as opposed ...

legislation and against

software patent A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm. The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something ...

s. Effi has also assumed a leading role on certain

consumer rights Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent businesse ...

issues such as CD copy protection, in part due to the reluctance of traditional Finnish

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

agencies to address them. Effi presents the annual Finnish

Big Brother Awards The Big Brother Awards (BBAs) are List of mocking awards, mocking awards that recognize "the government and private sector organizations ... which have done the most to threaten personal privacy". They are named after the George Orwell charac ...

in cooperation with

Privacy International Privacy International (PI) is a UK-based registered charity that defends and promotes the right to privacy across the world. First formed in 1990, registered as a non-profit company in 2002 and as a charity in 2012, PI is based in London. Its ...

. Board members include Tapani Tarvainen, Timo Karjalainen and Leena Romppainen as chairperson.

References

External links

Electronic Frontier Finland website
Politics and technology Computer law organizations Internet privacy organizations Foundations based in Finland Privacy organizations Organizations established in 2001 2001 establishments in Finland {{Europe-org-stub