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How A UK Fax Campaign Helped Preserve Privacy

Posted by timothy on from the at-least-a-few-shreds-of-it dept.

Neil Watson writes: "An interesting story on how some computer users created a website to enable citizens to fax their federal representative (MP) to comment on a controversial privacy bill." And it's encouraging, since they actually got the Home Office to blink.

6 of 15 comments (clear)

  1. Not only that but Slashdot contributed by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Atleast one person (me) found out about the issue right here on slashdot as well as the Fax webpage. I was one of the hundreds that used this mechanism. I received a very nice letter from my MP thanking me for my interest and noting that the legislation had been voted down (actually he was quite happy about it, as he's in opposition).

    Wow- real democracy! And in the semi-police state of the UK. Who'd have thought?

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  2. EFF Action Center by X86Daddy · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is hopeful news for us in The States: EFF has set up an Action Center that operates the same way, allowing us to Fax our congress-critters

  3. In what sense is an MP a "federal representative"? by DHam · · Score: 2, Informative

    As alledgedly well educated people like the editors should be aware, the UK has a unitary form of government. There is no federal government in the UK and hence no federal representatives!

  4. Re:If I wanted to be a fascist dictator... by Yarn · · Score: 2

    benefit of the 'fax your mp' site is that it's on the web. You can access it via a throwaway AOL account, or a anonymising proxy, etc.

    --
    -Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
  5. Re:If I wanted to be a fascist dictator... by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2

    Actually the web site was very carefully constructed. The MP gets your actual home address and can contact you to ask questions, and verify your identity in any number of ways.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  6. Re:If I wanted to be a fascist dictator... by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2

    Yes, but you presumably want the MP to do something. For that he may want reason to believe that he actually is representing you, otherwise he'll probably just bin it. He may even want to ring you about the issue; so filling in garbage is not a good idea.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"