The following is a first rough translation of the RoA generator's introductory text as of 2009-12. see also the German RoA generator:

Translators: Please fix/adapt as you like. This is only a suggestion.

Generator for Right of Access requests

This web page lets you generate Right of Access (RoA) letters for various authorities (primarily police). Their purpose is to request information on the data they store on you [insert a sentence or two on the national situation on RoA in your country: who as RoA against whom? What are reasons for them to refuse RoA?].

To generate an RoA request, fill out the fields below, check the authorities you want letters generated for and click "Generate". You should receive a PDF with A4 pages that you can print, shove into windowed envelopes, and send off (you will usually need to provide postage, though).

Some answers to questions frequently asked up front:

Is my data safe on this site? All data you enter here is only stored for the instant we need to generate your PDF. We do not even log your IP. If you still do not trust us, you can just leave the fields blank. The letters will then contain place holders that you can fill in by hand. If you are concerned about your data while it traverses the net, just access this page using https (change the URL in your address bar if necessary). You will have to accept our certificates (or install CACert's root certificate), though, which may look a bit scary but actually is not, in this case.

Won't the police only become suspicious because of the RoA request? Well, everything's possible, but

  • Official abuse of data can, in the end, only be controlled by public scrutiny. Making this possible far outweighs possible risks.
  • If they store something about you, an RoA request is not a very exciting piece of information any more ("X worries about data protection" -- Whoa!). If they don't have anything on you, they certainly cannot open a criminal file or anything like that. Of course, they will ususally keep your letter for a year or so, but police out on the streets or at the border will not see that.
  • The fact that someone filed an RoA request becomes less informative even to shady intelligence agencies if more people file them. So, tell your friends to file them as well. There really is no way to tell anarchists from geeks from civil rights persons from concerned citizens from an RoA request.

  • However you should never give any reasons for your RoA request. Don't make deals with the police -- see below.

What happens if I mail out the stuff? [Translators: Please send a test letter, see what happens, and write a few words; there's really nothin one can say here that's valid for all countries]

They want reasons?! RoA is not about dealing with the police ("I give you some of mine if you give me some of yours"). RoA is about exercising fundamental rights. All authorities we generate letters for are requried by law to answer your RoA requests, and are not allowed to require you to give reasons. Some of them are sleazy enough to try just that. Don't let them get away with it. Rather, contact us, and we'll see what we can work out.

Help us. Tell us of your experiences (good or bad), either by mail or possibly even on this wiki page [Translators: I'll insert a link here]. In particular, please contact us immediately if you notice one of our letters has gone out of date.

The Form

First Name       _______________________
Last Name        ___________________________
Street Address   ______________________________________
ZIP Code         _____
Place            ____________________________________
Date of Birth    ______
Place of Birth   __________________________

Generate letters for:

[ ] Authority 1
[ ] Authority 2
....

            [Generate]

[Translators: If necessary, one can categorize; the German case has federal, European, and state-level authorities. We'll need to work out if and what is necessary in your country.]