Our Mission

Information technology’s impact on us and our society cannot be overstated. From the ways we relate and communicate with one another, to the ways we behave, both in private and public, and even to the way we think of ourselves inside the privacy of our own minds, technology has been actively interwoven into the basic fabric of our modern society, and its role will only continue to expand. Unfortunately, its current development is led by Big Tech’s principal motto of “move fast and break things.” Consequently, the laws, regulations, and policies that should be in place to responsibly guide the growth of technology cannot seem to keep up with the breakneck pace of change.

A healthy and dynamic tension will always exist between the law and technological innovation. However, with little debate or input from the public, recent technological developments have dramatically altered the everyday life of millions of people living in Texas. Ranging from seemingly harmless consumer products that extract a user’s data without consent, to full-scale Orwellian surveillance systems implemented with little oversight, to the physical footprint of massive data-centers that put pressure on an already fragile environment, these developments have brought questions related to individual rights, environmental justice, and civil liberties into sharp focus.

For the concerned citizen who wishes to have a say in how their community will continue to be built, getting a handle on what is happening in the ever-changing world of tech policy can be very difficult, if not outright confusing. Hidden behind layers of technical jargon, corporate frameworks, and political machinations of special interest groups, it can feel like sticking one’s head in a torrential stream of information, with no way of knowing which way is up or down. It is for this purpose that the Plaintext Rights Foundation exists.

PTR deciphers the confusing world of technology policy and empowers the average citizen to defend their digital and civil rights.

Who We Are

• We are a collection of researchers, technologists, legal professionals, and activists.
• We attend council meetings in Central Texas when things come up on the agenda.
• We monitor digital rights legislation. We advocate for better legislation.
• We facilitate research.
• We have a board of technologists that can answer difficult tech questions and distill them for everyone.
• We believe that defending the fundamental right to privacy does not necessitate having a computer science degree, despite people’s attempts to say otherwise.
• We operate across the political aisle. These are human rights.
• We seek to build practical digital rights literacy.
• We focus on establishing small orgs or groups that empower people to make a difference in their own community.
• We believe in community power.

A city council approves a surveillance contract on the consent agenda.A state law requires you to hand over ID to read something. An algorithm denies a claim and there is no one to appeal to. A school district installs monitoring software on every student laptop and calls it safety. A data broker you have never heard of sells your address to anyone with a credit card.

You weren’t asked and in most cases, you weren’t told.

We are researchers, technologists, legal professionals, and activists based in Austin, TX.

A handful of companies hold more detailed records of ordinary life than any government in history. Where you go. What you buy. What you search at 2 a.m. Who you know. Your face. Most of it is collected by default, kept indefinitely, and sold or shared under terms written to be skipped.

The industry’s best defense is complexity. If a system sounds too complicated to question, most people won’t question it.

The Plaintext Rights Foundation is a group of legal professionals, policy wonks, researchers, programmers, and, most importantly, concerned Texans united for the cause to clarify, protect, and empower the digital rights and civil liberties of each Texan, regardless of political affiliation. Plaintext Rights exists to help the individual reclaim and maintain their autonomy during these shifting times and to make sense of technological changes in order to strengthen their communities and their society at large. We believe that personal privacy and digital rights are paramount to the functioning of a strong and just democracy, and it is our mission to equip our fellow citizens with the knowledge, confidence, and power to safely exist in a modern society that is heavily intertwined with cyberspace.

What We Do

• We show up. Council meetings, commission hearings, public comment, wherever a voice like ours is needed. When this tech is on the agenda, someone in the room knows how it works.
• We track legislation. We monitor digital rights bills as they move, tell people what’s actually in them, and push for better ones.
• We facilitate research. Independent work on the tools being deployed, who sells them, what they cost, and what they do.
• We translate. Our board of technologists takes the hard questions and gives you a straight answer in plain language.
• We build literacy. What to change, what to ask, what to file, and what your rights already are.
• We seed groups. We help people start and grow small organizations in their own cities and neighborhoods, because that’s where most of these decisions get made.

What We Believe

• You do not need a computer science degree to defend your right to privacy. People will tell you otherwise. They benefit from you believing it.
• Digital rights are not partisan issues. None of these systems check your voter registration, and neither do we.
• Privacy is a fundamental right.
• Community power is the point. A national campaign is worth less than a person who can read an agenda, ask the right question, and bring ten neighbors with them.

Excelsior!!