PrivacyActivism receives additional grant for new episode of online video game

For Immediate Release -- March 20, 2003

Contact:

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

San Francisco -- PrivacyActivism announced today that it has received a $45,000 grant for the new episode of the successful Carabella online video game. The grant, from the Rose Foundation’s Consumer Privacy Rights Fund, will support the development of an episode providing information for college students, including how to protect their personal information such as social security and credit card numbers.

"The recent theft of over 59,000 social security numbers from the University of Texas highlights that students need to be aware of the threats to their privacy and how they can protect themselves," said Deborah Pierce, Executive Director of PrivacyActivism, "Unfortunately, these topics are often presented in a dull, jargon-filled way. We appreciate the Rose Foundation's support for our approach -- the interactivity of a video game makes it an ideal way to learn while being entertained."

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. In December, PrivacyActivism announced that it had received a $75,000 grant to begin work on a second episode of Carabella from a cy pres fund established by Internet retailer Amazon.com.

The Rose Foundation's Consumer Privacy Rights Fund supports projects that promote and preserve privacy rights through public education campaigns. Other recipients of Winter 2003 grants include Consumer Action, CalPIRG, Cryptorights, Electronic Privacy Information Center, First Amendment Project, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at U.C. Berkeley.

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