PI Releases 2009 annual report
16/12/2009
Every year, Privacy International releases its annual report summarising our practices, policies, and activities. We discuss our plans for future research and campaigns.
The full report is available here.
The theme for this year's report is 'Being in the Background'. Often PI's campaigns result in front page articles in news media around the world. This year, however, we did a great deal of work below the radar where it was not always immediately clear that we were involved in shaping agendas and influencing change. Some of our work using this strategy included:
Establishing an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Privacy in the UK Parliament. Having seen the amount of undebated policy in the UK, we believed that the time had come to create a privacy forum in Parliament. We signed up members from the three major political parties, who lead the discussion and debate while we act solely as the Secretariat to the Group.
Raising Anti-Terrorism policy at the United Nations. In 2009 we worked closely with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Terrorism and Human Rights. We aided Professor Martin Scheinin in his work on addressing privacy and surveillance issues that have arisen over the past decade as governments responded to the threat of terrorism. We shared with Professor Scheinin our vast research databases and helped inform his work by seeking the input of our advisors from around the world. His report to the Human Rights Council is due in the Spring of 2010.
Responding strategically to the UK Government's Interception Modernisation Programme. In Spring 2009 the UK Government announced a consultation to move forward on its new communications surveillance plan to require communications service providers to actively monitor the transactions of all their customers to discern networks and contacts. This policy involved a high level of technological and legal detail which we felt most stakeholders would not easily grasp. We worked closely with communications and IT experts from around the world to develop a policy analysis, which we published with our colleagues at the London School of Economics and Political Science. We then convened a hearing of the APPG on Privacy where Parliamentarians could ask questions directly to Government officials and experts to draw out the complexities and challenges of the Government's proposals. The APPG then published a redacted form of the LSE report for Parliament's review. In late 2009 the UK Government announced it was delaying further action on the policy until after the next election.
Campaigning against Data-Sharing proposals in UK law. In the first quarter of 2009 the UK Government proposed in the Coroners and Justice Bill to allow Ministers to erase safeguards over the sharing of information within and beyond government. The power was proposed in a single clause (152) in a large and overdue piece of legislation. As a result, we knew the debate over this gross abuse of principle would be limited. We coordinated a networked campaign by raising the awareness amongst many of Britain's leading professional bodies ranging from the Royal College of Psychiatrists to the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association. Over 30 such organisations signed an open letter to the Secretary of State for Justice expressing grave concerns over clause 152. The Government was forced to withdraw the clause. We were fortunate to work with a number of our advisory board members and Trustees including Phil Booth, Terri Dowty, Fleur Fisher, and Helen Wallace.
Privacy and Development. We worked closely with international organisations like the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the International Development Research Centre to promote the consideration of privacy issues as developing countries invest in infrastructure projects. We met repeatedly with these organisations to discuss opportunities to raise the profile of privacy in their work. We have developed a work plan for IDRC's work on medical informatics for 2010, and have agreed on a further engagement strategy with the World Bank Institute. We also continued our work with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), though we have been unsuccessful in generating funding to take this work forward.
Capacity Building and Networking. We have been seeking out new partners to inform them of the privacy risks that their work may encounter, thus turning them into privacy-aware stakeholders. For instance, we ran a four-day workshop with our partners in Asia (from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand) to build their capacities on privacy advocacy. We brought in international experts to deliver lectures on issues ranging in complexity from identity policy (delivered by AB member Dr. Edgar Whitley), international privacy regimes (by AB member Nigel Waters), and the forensic use of DNA. Work in this domain also includes engaging with specialists and experts within governments, regulators, and industry to find common ground on privacy issues and find new ways to advance our causes. We continued our positive engagement work with Governments, responding to dozens of governments' requests for assistance. As examples, in 2009 we met repeatedly with the Scottish Government to advise on their identity policy; and in November 2009 we hosted a meeting with the South African Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Constitutional Affairs to assist them on their proposed privacy law. We also continued to advise MPs, regulators, and policy-makers around the world to help them do their work.
Industry Engagement. As part of our capacity-building work, we have found that engagement with industry is also a useful strategy. In our 2007 AGM the Privacy International Advisory Board and Trustees encouraged us to work more closely with industry to develop meaningful safeguards for privacy. Sometimes these relationships are antagonistic, but often we try to work together in a cordial manner. In 2009, we worked with the key IT firms and online service companies including eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and Vodafone to discuss privacy issues and to promote the adoption of privacy-protecting practices. We would raise concerns about their products and systems' designs, engage closely with their staff, and try to come up with solutions. The most remarkable turn came with our more cooperative relationship with Google which has borne some fruit already in that we have been able to provide a communications link from the complaints we receive from the public and put them through to Google staff members.
Deliberations on the Future of Privacy law. With changes in business models and technologies, there is a constant discussion in the privacy world about the nature of the regulations for data protection. We are keen participants in these highly technical discussions and deliberations, and often debates. This year we participated in a consultation process established by the Spanish Data Protection Commissioner that endeavoured to develop an international standard on data protection law. We also worked with the OECD and Irish Data Protection Commissioner who convened a consultation process on the notion of Accountability as a form of ensuring regulatory protection across borders. Finally, we continued to participate in international meetings at APEC and the international data protection commissioners conference.
We have a rich set of activities planned for 2010, which will also be our 20th year.
Unfortunately our plans will continue to be limited by our ability to raise funds. Only half of our project activities are funded, and even then not fully so. We foresee an even more challenging funding landscape for 2010. Many of the projects that we had envisioned for 2009 were abandoned because of the lack of funding opportunities. Alternatively, we ended up doing the work without support because we felt it was important.
We hope that in our twentieth year we can find the support to bring all these plans to fruition. Of course we will probably end up doing this work regardless, but we would like to see the organisation placed on more solid-foundations so that we can see it move forward with greater certainty over the next twenty years.
Related:
About PI - Principal Office Holders and Staff
About Supporting PI
PI Releases its annual report for 2008
|
