PrivacyActivism receives grant for new episode of online video game

For Immediate Release -- December 4, 2002

Contact:

Deborah Pierce, Executive Director, PrivacyActivism
dsp@privacyactivism.org
415-225-1730

San Francisco -- PrivacyActivism announced today that it has received a $75,000 grant to produce and distribute a new episode of the successful Carabella online video game. The grant, from a cy pres fund established by internet retailer Amazon.com, will allow work to begin on a new episode, focusing on the privacy implications of online activities such as shopping, e-mail, and filling out forms.

Carabella, Episode 1: The Quest for Tunes, released jointly by PrivacyActivism and EFF in June 2002, was downloaded over 30,000 times, and received enthusiastic responses from a wide variety of players.

"We're extremely excited by this endorsement of our approach of using graphics and interactivity to present important information in simple, jargon-free terms that people can relate to in their everyday life," said Deborah Pierce, Executive Director of PrivacyActivism. "This grant will allow us to continue to work with the core team that did such a great job on Carabella’s first episode."

The fund, established as part of a settlement in a lawsuit related to Amazon's acquisition of Alexa Internet in 1999, makes grants to universities and non-profit organizations to support consumer education about privacy. Other recipients of grants from the fund include Stanford Law School, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the University of California-Berkeley, EFF, Cryptorights, and the University of Washington.

PrivacyActivism (http://www.privacyactivism.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose goal is to enable people to make well-informed decisions about the importance of privacy on both a personal and societal level.

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Last updated August 24, 2003