South Africa

Report and Analysis

Long Read

Data Privacy Week: Privacy in Public Spaces

The Privacy International Network is celebrating Data Privacy Week, where we’ll be talking about how trends in surveillance and data exploitation are increasingly affecting our right to privacy. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek. In the era of smart cities, the gap between the

Long Read

Surveillance And The City: Turning Urban Centres Into A Panopticon

To celebrate Data Privacy Week, we spent the week discussing privacy and issues related to control, data protection, surveillance, and identity. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek. Do you live in a “smart city”? Chances are, you probably do (or at least your city claims to be)

Long Read

Watching The Watchers: Accessing and Challenging Control Over Our Data

Privacy International is celebrating Data Privacy Week, where we’ll be talking about privacy and issues related to control, data protection, surveillance and identity. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek. Exercising the right to privacy extends to the ability of accessing and

Long Read

Switching Hats: Why South Africa’s Surveillance Industry Needs Scrutiny

In July 2015, representatives of a private company met in a parking lot in Pretoria, South Africa to sell phone tapping technology to an interested private buyer. What they did not know was that this buyer was a police officer. The police had been tipped off that the company was looking to offload

News

4th February 2021

South African Constitutional Court declares bulk surveillance powers unlawful

16th September 2019

Bulk surveillance is unlawful, says the High Court of South Africa

7th August 2018

Statement: R2K and PI join amaBhungane RICA challenge as amicus curiae

11th July 2018

Lone Voices Leading the Way: How Civil Society in Africa is Successfully Countering Government Narratives on Cyber Security

1st November 2017

Landmark UK Surveillance Case To Be Heard In Strasbourg Tomorrow

19th April 2016

Reports Of The Death Of Communications Privacy Are Greatly Exaggerated: Reflections On The Recent UN Human Rights Committee Findings On South Africa

31st March 2016

UN Calls On Namibia, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Africa, and Sweden To Reform Surveillance. Will the Governments Act?

7th March 2016

A Week On The Right To Privacy At The UN In Geneva

Examples of Abuse

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

Users book hoax rides in international controversy

Uber and Bolt users in South Africa and Nigeria have been booking hoax rides in each other's country and pranking gig workers to express their anger after the beauty pageant contestant Chidimma Adetshina controversially pulled out of the Miss South Africa pageant and then agreed to appear in a

See more examples of abuse

Our Advocacy

The Right to Privacy in South Africa

This stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International (PI) and the Right2Know Campaign (R2K). This report has been prepared with the assistance and research done by the Media Policy and Democracy Project. PI is a human rights organisation that works to advance and promote the right to privacy and fight surveillance around the world. R2K is a broad- based, grassroots campaign formed to champion and defend information rights and promote the free flow of information in South Africa.

R2K and PI wish to bring concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in South Africa before the Human Rights Council for consideration in South Africa’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR).