epicenter.works

Description

epicenter.works is an Austrian nonprofit association based in Vienna. It works on digital rights and fundamental rights. It was formerly known as Arbeitskreis Vorratsdaten Österreich.

Its purpose is to promote the democratic state, and fundamental, human and civil liberties. It also promotes informational self-determination in an age of advancing digitalization, networking and automation. It focuses in particular on data protection and surveillance. It also does civic education and scientific work in these fields.

When governments push for new surveillance measures, the organization acts. It also acts when ever more data is collected about people, or when companies increase their profits at the public’s expense. In these cases it runs campaigns, publishes analyses, or takes cases to court to assert people’s rights.

epicenter.works is a small association funded by donations. It says it cannot offer legal advice or handle individual cases. Instead it concentrates its limited resources on improving laws and top-court rulings. It refers people who need personal legal help to other institutions.

Its work is financed by donations from private individuals, grants from foundations, and sponsorship from private companies. To safeguard its independence, corporate sponsorship is capped at 35 percent of funding, and individual sponsorship at 7.5 percent. It publishes annual transparency reports.

For its first five years, the association was run entirely by volunteers. Volunteer involvement remains central today, alongside a core team and an elected board. Members elect the board, which appoints and oversees the management running the staff.

epicenter.works is part of several networks.