Bits of Freedom is a well-established Dutch non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for internet freedom, communication rights, and privacy protection. The website prominently features campaigns such as the Big Brother Awards, highlighting their role in raising awareness about digital rights violations. Their market position is strong within the Dutch digital rights community, supported by active social media engagement and donor participation. The business model focuses on advocacy, campaigning, and fundraising through donations and public engagement.
Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including WooCommerce for e-commerce functionality, MailPoet for email marketing, and Matomo for analytics. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and SEO practices, though some accessibility features could be improved. Performance is moderate, with lazy loading and responsive design elements enhancing user experience.
Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and secure form handling, but lacks some advanced security headers and explicit incident response policies. Privacy compliance is generally good, with a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service, but the absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a notable gap. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found.
Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and aligned with its mission. Strategic improvements in security policies, cookie consent, and accessibility would further enhance its compliance and user trust.
a(a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
b(b) Incident handling: One indicator
c(c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
d(d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
e(e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
f(f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
g(g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
h(h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
i(i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
j(j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside
Partly checked
One indicator
Not visible from outside
This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.
GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.
Priority findings
4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.
GDPR outside view
These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.
Critical
EU business without adequate privacy measures
EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements
What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures
High
No Cookie Policy found
GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage
What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes
This scan found 18 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.
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TLS certificates and expiry
DNS records
SPF, DKIM and DMARC
Security headers
GDPR and NIS2 posture
Exposed services
Third-party trackers
Security score drift
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Results by check
Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.
How this score is calculated
The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.
Counted in this score
SSL/TLS
65
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
33
Average
71
Not counted
NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.
Findings that cap the score at 49
Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.
The certificate is not trusted by browsers
The website is not served over HTTPS
A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
The page loads a script from a compromised source
The domain registration has expired
SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain
Partial scans
When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.
Risk levels
Critical0–25
High26–49
Medium50–75
Low76–100
Breach exposure
Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.
Dark web exposure
Add-on
Leaked records that mention bigbrotherawards.nl, from OffSeq Breach.
No leaked records found
Breach holds no records for bigbrotherawards.nl right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.
Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.
Business context
Business profile
Bits of Freedom operates as a key player in the Dutch digital rights and privacy advocacy sector. Their competitive advantage lies in their recognized campaigns like the Big Brother Awards and their ability to mobilize public opinion and donors. The organization targets privacy-conscious individuals, activists, and the general public interested in internet freedom. Revenue streams primarily come from donations and merchandise sales via their online shop. The partnership with donor management platforms and active social media presence supports growth and engagement. The organization's operations reflect a mature non-profit with a clear mission and consistent branding.
Security posture
The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. Use of Matomo analytics indicates a privacy-respecting approach to user tracking. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and absence of a published incident response or vulnerability disclosure policy represent areas for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or malware indicators were detected. The organization should consider formalizing security policies and implementing cookie consent to enhance GDPR compliance and user trust.
Recommendations
Implement a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR requirements.
Add security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information.
Create and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file.
Enhance website accessibility features to improve inclusivity.
Site observations
Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.
Business
Company
Bits of Freedom
Description
Bits of Freedom komt op voor internetvrijheid door de online grondrechten op communicatievrijheid en privacy te beschermen.
Key services
Organizing Big Brother Awards, Advocacy for communication freedom and privacy, Campaigns and public awareness, Donor engagement and fundraising
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent
Technology
Stack
WordPress, WooCommerce, jQuery, Easy Video Player, MailPoet, LazySizes, Foundation Sites
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good
Security
Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
HTTPS enforced
No exposed sensitive data in HTML
Use of secure forms with validation
Analytics and tracking
Services
Matomo (self-hosted)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good
Advertising
Tracking pixels
Piwik/Matomo
Marketing tools
MailPoet
Transparency
basic
Site quality
Design
excellent
User experience
good
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
good
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high
Key observations
Website is a professional non-profit advocacy platform focused on digital rights and privacy.
Content is well-structured, relevant, and localized in Dutch with some English sections.
No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
Donation and newsletter subscription forms are present and appear secure.
Social media presence is strong across multiple platforms.
No explicit privacy or security incident contact emails found.
No cookie consent banner detected, which may be a GDPR compliance gap.
No explicit security policy or vulnerability disclosure page found.
Technical notes
Notes
The website is powered by WordPress CMS with WooCommerce for e-commerce and several plugins for video playback, donations, and email marketing. The use of lazy loading and responsive design contributes to good performance and mobile optimization. The site loads scripts asynchronously and defers non-critical JavaScript, improving page speed. However, some technical debt is evident in missing security headers and limited accessibility features. Hosting provider details were not explicitly found. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from security and accessibility enhancements.
Standards and sources
Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.
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