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Center for Democracy and Technology
This nonprofit advocacy group focuses on issues of free expression and privacy on the Internet.

“Our goal is to bring the Internet to its full democratic potential,” said Ari Schwartz, a policy analyst with CDT. “The Internet is more interactive than any other media and it’s possible to involve more people, to allow every person to become a publisher.”

But for all its accessibility, Internet publishing can expose someone to legal problems or other consequences. Since its founding in 1994, the center has advised about 10,000 activists around the country on how to express their views electronically without violating communications law.

The CDT also offers consumers how to avoid the voracious information gathering some Web sites do. It promotes technologies that encrypt e-mail messages and “anonymize” a person’s electronic trail as they surf the Internet.

A major concern for CDT has been recent activity from the Federal Elections Commission that eventually may label any individual’s Web site with information on a candidate as a form of campaign contribution. CDT has pushed for regulating Internet fundraising and contributions while still protecting an individual’s right to speak out.

“We do not advocate creating a regulation-free zone on the Internet,” a recent report from CDT said, but sites created by individuals are “where the democratizing potential of the Internet is most dramatic-and should be most unrestricted.”

LINKS:
www.cdt.org - The Center for Democracy and Technology