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Rights Defenders and Journalists

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Explainer

Surveillance Industry Finally Facing Scrutiny, but Will it Change Anything?

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Never heard of TrueCaller? They might have heard about you. Here is how you can unlist yourself

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Social media intelligence (SOCMINT) explainer

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Facial recognition cameras explainer

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IMSI catcher explainer

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Social Media Intelligence

Protecting the Protectors: a case from Colombia

Links

The organisation who put us in touch with Claudia is called Media Defence, they are an international human rights organisation which provides legal defence to journalists, citizen journalists and independent media around the world who are under threat for their reporting. Find out more

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Report and Analysis

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Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash

Briefing: Controlling the UK's Private Intelligence Industry

New briefing details the growth of the private intelligence industry in the UK and what needs to be done about it.

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Report
Image of protesters with protest surveillance technology annotations

Restraining protest surveillance: When should surveillance of protesters become unlawful?

PI has published a report advocating for 12 human rights-based legal standards to limit surveillance by police and law enforcement at protests. Our report explains how these standards are rooted in the rights to privacy and freedom of assembly and illustrates why these specific legal limits are necessary at every stage of a protest.

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Report
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Under Surveillance: (Mis)use of Technologies in Emergency Responses Global lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic

The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL), the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO), and Privacy International (PI) joined together to track the negative impacts of surveillance technology and measures deployed during the Covid-19 pandemic on activist movements and organizations, in collaboration with local organizations and researchers in 6 countries.

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News

5th December 2022

EU Watchdog Finds Commission Failed to Protect Human Rights From its Surveillance Aid to African Countries

10th October 2022

EU Ombudsman opens inquiries into FRONTEX and EEAS on their support to develop surveillance capabilities in non-EU countries

15th October 2021

Human Rights Groups Submit Complaint to European Ombudsman Calling for Investigation into EU Surveillance Aid

25th May 2021

Human rights groups win European Court of Human Rights claim on UK mass surveillance regime

19th June 2020

IMSI catchers: facilitating indiscriminate surveillance of protesters

9th June 2020

Une loi nigérienne donne de vastes pouvoirs pour intercepter les communications

Examples of Abuse

Want to know how this translate in the real world? Here is the latest example in the news.

China forces out Australian journalist

The Australian journalist Chris Buckley, who reports for the New York Times, was forced to leave China on April 10 after 24 years of reporting on the country, bringing the number of journalists forced out of the country in the last year to 19. After travelling to Wuhan to report on the unfolding
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Our Advocacy

PI’s submission to the UN Human Rights Committee regarding Colombia’s compliance with ICCPR

Summary

PI’s submission regarding Colombia’s compliance with the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights highlights concerns regarding changes in electoral law, the continued surveillance of human rights defenders, and the emergence of new OSINT tactics.

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