Center for Democracy and Technology
CDT is the abbreviation for Center for Democracy and Technology. The CDT is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. established in the interest of the public with a view of keeping the Internet innovative, open and free. It is a civil expertise group in law, policy and technology, which works to improve the privacy in communications technologies by inventing new practical as well as innovative solutions to deal with the challenges in protecting liberty of the people and improve freedom of expression over the Internet.
The Center for Democracy and Technology is committed towards building up a consensus among all the parties who are interested in securing the future of Internet and other emerging mediums of communications. [1]
History of CDT
The Center for Democracy and Technology has been assisting the government in formulating policies related to issues about Internet. Right from the First Amendment free speech rights, to Fourth Amendment of “search and seizure” protections for the sake of ensuring top-level security encryption and to provide online privacy for consumers, the CDT has been helping the government since 15 years.
Mission of CDT
The CDT is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization established on public interest and is committed towards promoting the democratic potential of the decentralized nature of Internet. The main mission of CDT is to define, create and implement policies, which will help sustain the openness of the Internet and will keep it free and innovative.
The Center for Democracy and Technology deals with the following issues
- Free Expression
- Health Privacy Security and Surveillance
- Digital Copyright
- Global Internet Freedom
- Open Government
- Internet Openness and Standards[1]
Recent Awards
As recently as on March 10, 2011, the CDT was awarded with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) 2011 Privacy Leadership Award for their current innovation in online privacy. The IAPP Award is basically bestowed on leader in the field of data protection and privacy issues and progressing towards the growth and development of the privacy profession. The IAPP is the world’s largest association in the arena of privacy profession.[2]
CDT and ICANN
The Center for Democracy and Technology has always been critical about the functions of the Internet Corporations for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In an attempt of ICANN to seek input about improving openness and Accountability, the CDT stated that ICANN has not taken any efforts and has not progressed in terms of enhancing the transparency of decision-making processes. [3]
The CDT had also opposed the involvement of ICANN in the ‘Spamhouse’ case, wherein a London-based anti-spam group Spamhaus, was sued by an Illinois-based email-marketing company, e360 Insight LLC, in the year 2006. The e360 Insight LLC was keen in involving ICANN to bring about a suspension of Spamhaus’s domain name. However, the CDT issued a statement, mentioning that ICANN was not a party to the case as it doesn’t look after the Individual Web addresses and in no way should be involved in the case. [4]