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Content Type: Advocacy
Privacy International welcomes the opportunity to provide written input on the working draft of the WHO’s Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response accord (“WHO CAII”) published on 13 July 2022.
This submission is based on our research and assessment of data-reliant and tech-intensive measures deployed by governments and companies in response to Covid-19 and its aftermath, which documented how these measures impacted people’s fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to…
Content Type: Examples
Despite having opened their borders to and taking in millions of fleeing Venezuelan migrants, the Colombian government’s handling process for this population tells a story of discrimination rather than inclusion.
The 2021 issuance of the Temporary Statute for Venezuelan Migrants came with a legal framework laying out the benefits for incoming Venezuelans, but also outlined how a multibiometric system would be used for identification of this specific migrant group.
This system allows for…
Content Type: Examples
In December 2019, a Brazilian public security programme, called the Integrated Border Operations Center (CIOF) was presented. The CIOF aims to combat transnational organised crime in the region of Foz do Iguaçu and the Triple Border Area1, shared by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguy, and integrate different public security agents through a centralised system.
It has been reported that CIOF is part of a wider digital security apparatus being deployed in the Triple Border Area, that there is…
Content Type: Examples
A vulnerability in the Bono Familiar Universal, the platform used to distribute the financial subsidy provided to households in precarious economic situation by the Peruvian government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, enabled the subsidy to be accessed by malicious individuals.
The vulnerability was reported by Deep Security, and it was resolved but an undetermined number of malicious individuals were able to pose as beneficiaries to access the platform and collect the subsidy themselves…
Content Type: Report
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) contributes significantly to security and privacy. For that reason, PI has long been in favour of the deployment of robust E2EE.Encryption is a way of securing digital communications using mathematical algorithms that protect the content of a communication while in transmission or storage. It has become essential to our modern digital communications, from personal emails to bank transactions. End-to-end encryption is a form of encryption that is even more private.…
Content Type: Key Resources
ID systems create their own reality: they create a situation where ID is needed for more things and more actors, which only increases people’s vulnerability to their data being misused or abused.
Content Type: Key Resources
ID systems are all too often a smokescreen. They are a tool for giving unprecedented surveillance powers to the police, security services, and other actors.
Content Type: Key Resources
The fact of the matter is: your ID system will exclude, and the people it’s excluding will be the most vulnerable and marginalised.
Content Type: Advocacy
Read in English
Nosotros, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y los individuos abajo firmantes, instamos al Banco Mundial y a otras organizaciones internacionales a que tomen medidas inmediatas para cesar las actividades que promueven modelos perjudiciales de sistemas de identificación digital (ID digital).
Los firmantes de esta carta se encuentran en diferentes países, trabajan con diversas comunidades y aportan una amplia gama de conocimientos. Entre este grupo, hay muchas…
Content Type: Advocacy
We, the undersigned civil society organizations and individuals, urge the World Bank and other international organizations to take immediate steps to cease activities that promote harmful models of digital identification systems (digital ID).
The signatories of this letter are located in different countries, work with diverse communities, and bring a wide range of expertise. Among this group, there are many shared concerns and similar experiences documenting the harmful impacts…
Content Type: Course Section
Knowledge gap?
Research finding: In 2018, a study by the NGO Doteveryone on digital understanding found a “major understanding gap” of British citizens when it comes to digital technologies. For example, they found that 83% of British don’t realise that information shared about them by others is collected, and 70% don’t realise free apps make money from data.
Finding: In 2020, another study by Doteveryone found that while the public’s understanding of data collection has increased, it still…
Content Type: Course Section
Building on our experience and research, in this chapter we introduce a number of good practices when educating about data: what we found works well and what educators should pay attention to. The chapters after this then provide advice on how to identify 'good' educational resources on data, and on creating your own resources.
Content Type: Course Section
Educators are keen to teach, learners are keen to learn. As we covered in previous chapters, the learning gaps are clear. Many citizens are unaware of the ways in which their data is used, data systems function and how they influence their lives and our societies. These aspects crucially need to be included when educating about digital technologies. But there’s another gap too: educators don’t know where to find teaching resources.
Content Type: Course Section
In this chapter, we will give a brief overview of the landscape of online ‘critical data literacy resources’, present a database that collects such resources and recommend some example resources for different types of learners. While there are also ‘traditional’ formats of teaching material available, for example textbooks or worksheets, our research and thus this chapter focusses on online resources.
Online resources can have various formats: websites, videos, games, podcasts, online courses,…
Content Type: Course Section
We often get asked by others who are interested in creating educational resources about data, what they should consider as they develop their own critical data literacy resources for sharing with others.
Content Type: Long Read
Introduction
In response to the unprecedented social, economic, and public health threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Bank financed at least 232 "Covid-19 Response" projects. The projects were implemented across countries the World Bank classifies as middle and low-income.
This article will focus on eight (8) Covid-19 Response projects which sought to deliver social assistance to individuals and families on a "non-contributory" basis (this means that the intended beneficiaries…
Content Type: Advocacy
Today, PI filed a complaint with the Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) in relation to quality and accuracy issues in satellite-enabled Global Positioning System (GPS) tags used for Electronic Monitoring of subjects released from immigration detention (GPS tags). We are concerned there may be systemic failures in relation to the quality of data extracted from tags, processed and interpreted for use in investigations and criminal prosecutions.
The GPS tags are used by the Home Office to…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Privacy International (PI) has today filed complaints with the Information Commissioner (ICO) and Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) against the UK Home Office's use of GPS ankle tags to monitor migrants released on immigration bail. This policy and practice represents a seismic change in the surveillance of migrants in the UK. PI was first alerted to this scheme by organisations such as Bail for Immigration Detainees, an independent charity that exists to challenge immigration detention in the…
Content Type: Video
Nour El Arnaout is a division manager at the Global Health Insitute at the American University of Beirut, where she also co-ordinates the Institutes's E-Sahha programme focussed on e-health and digital health. She has more than 7 years experience in projects and programmes management, operational management and research, and leads the implementation of large scale field based projects in underserved communities in Lebanon including refugee settlements. She is working on a project called: The…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The relationship between privacy and access to abortion care
In 1973, in the state of Texas, it was a criminal offence to “procure or attempt” an abortion except if the purpose was “saving the life of the mother.” This law was enacted in 1854 by the Texas state legislature, and was part of a wave of provisions criminalising access to abortion care that was gaining ground across the U.S in the mid-1800s. It is worth highlighting that these laws were being passed at a time when women in the U.S…
Content Type: Long Read
In the wake of the recent news of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the ruling of Roe v Wade in its ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, headlines have been dominated by conversations around privacy and fears of how the criminalisation of abortion care and surveillance by law enforcement will play out in a tech driven world.
This discussion is increasingly important as governments move towards digitising their healthcare systems and as more individuals choose to…
Content Type: Long Read
The global COVID-19 health crisis not only induced a public health crisis, but has led to severe social, economic and educational crises which have laid bare any pre-existing gaps in social protection policies and frameworks. Measures identified as necessary for an effective public health response such as lockdowns have impacted billions workers and people's ability to sustain their livelihood worldwide, with countries seeing unprecedented levels of applications for welfare benefits support,…
Content Type: Long Read
The same day that the United Nations General Assembly convened an emergency special session to respond to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early March, a very different set of negotiations was underway in another U.N. conference room. More than two years after its establishment, the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes (hereinafter the Ad Hoc Committee) held its…
Content Type: Advocacy
In our submission we outline our concerns with the industry as a result of extensive technical research and complaints taken to data protection authorities in Europe as a result.
Data brokers must specifically be included in "actors in scope."
We recommend that "data brokers" are specifically included in the list of "actors in scope". A data broker is a company that collects, buys and sells personal data and this is often how they earn their primary revenue. It is a term that is entering…