On Friday, 7 February 2025, the Washington Post reported that the UK government had issued a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) to Apple under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. This secret order would force Apple to build a backdoor into its end-to-end encrypted cloud services, jeopardizing the security and privacy of all users worldwide, not just in the UK. The ISOC Switzerland Chapter, alongside over 100 civil society organizations, companies, and cybersecurity experts, co-signed a joint letter led by the Global Encryption Coalition (GEC). Addressed to the UK Home Secretary, the letter urges the Home Office to rescind its demand that Apple compromise its encrypted services. It highlights the severe risks this order poses to security, privacy, the economy, and freedom of expression. As encryption advocates have long warned, any backdoor for law enforcement creates vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cybercriminals, foreign espionage, and other malicious actors. The UK’s move represents a dangerous attempt to undermine encryption, endangering the privacy and security of millions of Apple users worldwide. Further Reading: * Draft Technical Capability Regulations notified to European Commission following targeted consultation * Apple’s submission of evidence on the Investigatory Powers Act Amendments Bill * BBC’s coverage of Apple’s July 2023 submission The post UK Government’s Demand for an Apple Backdoor Puts Global Security at Risk appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

ISOC-CH is a key partner in the Horizon Europe NGI0 Commons Fund, and through this engagement a great opportunity arises to develop as an organization both locally in Switzerland and abroad, creating links between local issues and struggles for digital rights and important developments at the European and global level. The role of ISOC-CH in the NGI0 project is to develop the so-called “Tech dossiers” of free/libre and open software. That is, a comprehensive introduction to a certain are of digital services (e.g., cloud storage, video conferencing, AI), addressing specific audiences (e.g., policy makers, youth, educators, elderly) with a suitable medium (e.g., guidelines, podcast, curriculum). For this project, we are searching for a candidate that will cover the topic of cloud solutions, addressing policy makers and the government in the context of digital sovereignty with an expected engagement of 20% for a period of 1 year, with a possible extension up to 2 years.. In addition, this year, the Board of ISOC Switzerland will be reshuffled. We are looking for additional board members, including for treasurer and/or policy.  For more information and application process, you can reach us at contact@isoc.ch or in one of the upcoming events announced on our web site, https://isoc.ch, and linkedin page. More details about the application process will be announced after the General Assembly 2025. Before, you are very welcome to join the ISOC-CH’s Policy Sessions 2025 on the topic of E-ID, an excellent introduction for this job position! The ISOC-CH board. The post ISOC-CH is hiring! appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

The second plenary meeting of the NGI0 Commons Fund consortium took place in Brussels on January 30th 2025, in the context of the FOSDEM conference, where the presence of NGI0 at the FOSDEM was impressive, During the plenary meeting, ISOC-CH developed the plan for the development of the so-called “tech dossiers”, which will focus on three distinct thematic areas: video conferencing, AI and privacy, and Cloud solutions, targeting three distinct target audiences respectively: like-minded non-experts, school teachers, and policy makers. The description of the whole implementation plan for the tech dossiers and an interesting job opening will be announced soon. For now, the most important news is that the project selection is running smoothly and the sixth call of NGI Zero Commons Fund opened up on February 1st 2025, with a deadline of April 1st 2025 12:00 CEST (noon). To get some inspiration, here is the list of the first 50 projects funded under the NGI0 Commons fund: https://nlnet.nl/news/2025/20250101-announcing-grantees-June-call.html The post NGI0 Commons Fund update and 6th call for funding appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

The voting in the UN General Assembly that was expected to pass the Draft Convention on Cybercrime, was postponed. This Draft was the outcome of many years of negotiations which started with a UN resolution initiated in 2019 by Russia, China and other states (such as Iran, Egypt, Sudan, and Uzbekistan) , with 88 votes to 58, and 34 abstentions. There is a wide consensus that this convention puts in danger human rights, privacy, and safety online, and a large number of human rights and journalists’ associations  have officially expressed their criticism of the surveillance pact, including Privacy International, Access Now, the IPI, and European Digital Rights, the umbrella organisation of many European NGOs. ISOC global in their position article on the UN convention state clearly two major concerns regarding its potential negative impact: > 1) Impact on the work of security researchers: As highlighted in this > statement from security experts, good faith security research is crucial to > ensuring the security of the Internet and preventing cybercrime. > 2) Impact on encryption: Article 28.4 on search and seizure of electronic data > might be interpreted to allow countries to authorize competent authorities to > order the handover of encryption keys or other sensitive information about the > security of hardware or software. Adrienne Fichter, in her article titled “The UN community has negotiated a global surveillance regime — but it could have been worse”, explains in detail all the shortcomings of this convention and the potential impact in the Swiss context. A recent article (9.Dec 2024) by Lawfare media analyzes the legal language of the Draft Convention and another one by Anja P. Jakobi und Lena Herbst, at the same day, concludes that despite the problems with this convention, > It is, however, unlikely that the draft Convention will fail to pass the GA. > Therefore, it seems advisable to accept the treaty with reservations and > become a state party to the Convention. Without internal critics, the > ‘Conference of Parties’ (CoP), tasked with reviewing and implementing the > convention, could develop additional measures and worsen a Convention that at > least includes some human rights safeguards. In particular, due to Russia’s > and China’s growing influence, rejecting the Convention could pave the way for > ‘digital authoritarianism’ in a central UN norm on cyberspace. Still, > accepting the Convention requires careful monitoring, not only of the CoP, but > also of its results in practice. If reviews of the treaty show that its > implementation means compromising human rights and data protection, states > should continuously reevaluate whether to stay or leave the treaty, with the > Budapest Convention as a remaining fallback option. The argument of making compromises to “stay at the table of negotiations” have been used also for other critical issues in recent debates among digital rights associations in Switzerland. And although “staying at the table” is a valid argument, for such important threats on fundamental human rights, someone needs to stay out of the table and fight for privacy, self-determination, and safety! So, we are in a critical moment of this process, and signing the ongoing petition, initiated by the Pirate Party CH, and supported by the ISOC Switzerland Chapter, we can pass the message to policy makers that people care for human rights and privacy: https://act.campax.org/petitions/un-cybercrime-convention-stoppen-arreter-la-convention-des-nations-unies-sur-la-cybercriminalite The post UN Convention on Cybercrime: staying out of the table and fighting for human rights, privacy, and safety appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

On May 15th, ISOC Switzerland Chapter hosted the Public Policy Sessions 2024 including a diverse set of introductory talks and a very interesting panel on the topic of disinformation online, organized by Bernie Hoeneisen, co-founder of ISOC-CH. You can watch the recorded live stream here: https://livestream.com/internetsociety/isoc-ch-public-policy2024 First, Markus Kummer (ISOC-CH Chapter Advisory Council Representative) introduced... The post Public Policy Sessions 2024 (summary) appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

The ISOC Switzerland Chapter is proud to be one of the partners of the Horizon Europe project NGI0 Commons Fund, which started on January 1st 2024. The project is part of the NGI0 NGI Zero coalition, led by NLnet Foundation, which uses a very flexible cascading funding scheme that enables a large number of carefully... The post ISOC-CH is a partner of the NGI0 Commons Fund appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

The Next Generation Internet initiative has supported Free Software projects with funding and technical assistance since 2018. Despite its proven success, the European Commission made the decision to cut this funding in the current draft for the Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme. This open letter to the European Commission to revert this decision was initially... The post The support of the European Union for free and open source software is at stake. appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

On Friday, March 24th, 2023, the ISOC-CH General Assembly decided to join the explicit disassociation from the position paper "Joint Statement zur Plattformregulierung" issued and co-signed by Digitale Gesellschaft (Digiges) a few months ago. The post ISOC-CH to support disassociation from DigiGes Platform statement appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

On Friday, March 24th, 2023, the ISOC-CH General Assembly decided to join the explicit disassociation from the position paper "Joint Statement zur Plattformregulierung" issued and co-signed by Digitale Gesellschaft (Digiges) a few months ago. The post ISOC-CH to support disassociation from DigiGes Platform statement appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.

The Internet Society Switzerland Chapter (ISOC-CH) is a non-governmental not-for-profit association seated in Zurich, Switzerland, founded in 2012. ISOC-CH is a recognized Chapter of the global Internet Society, founded in 1992. With a goal of benefiting the whole community, including academic, professional, business and private Internet users, ISOC-CH aims to ensure a multi-stakeholder participation in... The post Home Copy appeared first on ISOC Switzerland Chapter.