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Content type: Examples
22nd June 2022
Ukraine and Russia are both weaponising facial recognition - but Russia is using it to hunt down anti-war protesters, holding and sometimes torturing anyone who refuses to be photographed, while Ukraine is using software donated by Clearview AI to help find Russian infiltrators at checkpoints, identify the dead and reunite families. Russia's widespread surveillance means that activists can be followed and arrested anywhere. In an approved, peaceful anti-government rally in Moscow in 2019,…
Content type: Examples
22nd June 2022
Footage captured by Bloomberg shows that police are arresting anti-war protesters in Russia and scrolling through their phones.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-03-07/russian-police-search-protesters-phones-make-arrests-video
Writer: Kommersant
Publication: Bloomberg TV
Publication date: 2022-03-07
Content type: Examples
22nd June 2022
Based on a draft methodology from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, Kommersant business daily reports that Rostec's data subsidiary, Natsionalny Tsentr Informatizatsii, is developing software that will use machine learning to detect and prevent mass unrest. The software will analyse news reports, social media postings, public transport data, and video surveillance footage; if it fails to prevent mass unrest it is expected to direct the crowd's movements to stop it from escalating. The…
Content type: Examples
22nd June 2022
The Kommersant reports that Russia's Rostec State Corporation is developing a new AI-powered anti-riot surveillance system that uses biometrics-powered cameras and can search social media networks and other publicly accessible data and intends to deploy the new system by the end of 2022. The behaviou analysis software is being developed as part of the Safe City project under the aegis of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which intends to spend 97 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) deploying Safe…
Content type: Press release
15th June 2022
Meta, the largest provider of social media sites and display advertising in the UK, acquired GIPHY, the largest provider of GIFs. In its report of 30 November 2021 the CMA found that the completed merger between Meta and GIPHY will give rise to a substantial lessening of competition.
The CAT confirmed the CMA's assessment and dismissed all but one of Meta’s appeal grounds, paving the way for Meta to sell GIPHY, as demanded by the CMA.
PI was granted permission to intervene in this case, one of…
Content type: Long Read
15th June 2022
Imagine your performance at work was assessed directly from the amount of e-mails sent, the amount of time consumed editing a document, or the time spent in meetings or even moving your mouse. This may sound ludicrous but your boss might be doing exactly that. There are more and more stories emerging of people being called into meetings to justify gaps in their work only to find out their boss had been watching them work without their knowledge.
The Covid-19 global pandemic has reshuffled the…
Content type: Press release
14th June 2022
To mark 10 years of the Home Office's hostile environment, a coalition of charities last night projected a vast message on the Home Office's Lunar House building in South London, to draw attention to Home Secretary Priti Patel's plans to GPS ankle tag thousands of migrants - a coercive, costly, and dehumanising measure.
As part of a week of events to mark 10 years of the "hostile environment", a set of policies designed to make life difficult for what former Home Secretary Theresa May…
Content type: News & Analysis
13th June 2022
Last night, PI, Migrants Organise and Bail For Immigration Detainees joined forces to shine a light on the enduring plight of migrants in the UK who are subject to hardline and dehumanising Home Office policies.
Our joint light projection marked the 10 year anniversary of former Home Secretary Theresa’s May’s infamous 'hostile environment', a policy purposefully cruel that includes indefinite detention of migrants and refugees.
The past decade has also seen the steady creep of data sharing…
Content type: Video
10th June 2022
Links
A resource for teachers we've been working with Ina on (consultation draft at the moment so please get in touch if you have thoughts!)
More about critical data literacy
The database of resources for teaching about big data and algorithmic systems Ina mentioned
PI's guides to help you and your loved ones protect yourselves online
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
A. Risks to consider
Defamation: The law of defamation protects a person’s reputation against unjustified interference. You may get sued for defamation by a private actor you make allegations against. Defamation laws differ between jurisdictions and the burden of proof might be entirely on you.
Unlawful obtention of information: Depending on your jurisdiction, certain types of investigations might be in contravention of the law (such as publishing leaked information or hacking).…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
The first step when looking at technology is to find basic information about it - to define and categorise it. Looking at the Wikipedia page of a given technology is often a good starting point and will help you clarify what is implied within a technology (for example for Facial recognition). This is particularly useful when there is no specific technology that is mentioned in the partnership or when you are looking at a tender. You might also want to check the company’s marketing materials to…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
Obtaining adequate information about a public-private partnership is often difficult, especially when sensitive areas of government are involved, such as intelligence and law enforcement. Information about such activities is often purposefully withheld from the public and guarded by excessive laws and punishments.
But if it is safe to access them, there are many methods and resources out there which can help. Many of these sources are already readily available online, while others require desk…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
The UN Guiding Principles are a set of guidelines for states and companies to prevent, address and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations. The UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles in its resolution 17/4 of 16 June 2011.
The UN Guiding Principles provide the authoritative global standard for action to safeguard human rights in a business context. As such, in the course of an investigation, they can be used to assess the compliance of a…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
There are no universally recognised data protection standards, but regional and international bodies have created internationally-agreed-upon codes, practices, decisions, recommendations, and policy instruments. The most significant instruments are:
The Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (No. 108), 1981 as amended in 2018;
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines on the Protection…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
Public-private partnerships might very well involve a technology that is well-known and already widely deployed in other contexts, but it might also be a ground for innovation and novelty.
We can identify two main types of innovation:
A new technology that isn’t widely used or hasn’t been deployed in real world context (outside of a lab or a research paper);
A new set of features added to an existing technology which greatly expand its performances and capabilities.
Another type of “…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
You should check that certain documents and processes are in place so that the contracting state and company are accountable, that there is proper oversight, and adequate redress mechanisms. Note that you should consider the entire life cycle of the partnership. First at the procurement stage, has the procurement process for this contract followed local or international procurement rules? And are those procurement rules adequate? Has there been adequate transparency throughout the procurement…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
i. Added Literature review
There are several resources available that simplify and popularise complex technologies, starting with Wikipedia. Other resources can be tremendously useful even with little to no technical background, such as semi-specialised press. See for example:
MIT Technology review (e.g. quantum computing)
ArsTechnica, (e.g. on NFTS)
PC Mag (e.g. on 5G Mag)
Academic papers are also an avenue to find information although the language might be less accessible without…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
Data protection and privacy
Once you’ve assessed where the data comes from, have you assessed whether the data collection or sharing is lawful?
Is this lawful basis explicitly stated in the documentation of the partnership?
Is the data being collected in ways that people could reasonably expect?
Have the data controllers considered the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people whose data will be collected?
What will the consequences be of people’s data being…
Content type: Key Resources
7th June 2022
Can you broadly define the technology at stake and what it does?
What is the role of data in the technology at stake? (data collection system, data transmission system, data storage system, data processing system)
What are the risks associated with this technology for each particular system?
How innovative and ground-breaking is the technology?
[Optional] What are the risks associated with the innovation factor?
Can you explain how the technology functions in practice…
Content type: Video
3rd June 2022
Links
Giacomo’s report on Europe’s Shady Funds to Border Forces in the Sahel https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/3223/europes-shady-funds-border-forces-sahel
Giacomo’s report on The European Chase for Saharan Smugglers https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/3347/european-chase-saharan-smugglers
Privacy International’s disclosures on the EU’s surveillance aid https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/4291/surveillance-disclosures-show-urgent-need-reforms-eu-aid-programmes…
Content type: Advocacy
31st May 2022
Now is the time to strengthen not weaken data protection to keep us all safe. Here we outline some edited areas of our consultation response that highlight the impact of the proposed loss or weakening of many important protections:
The proposal to broadening consent and further processing for research purposes:
PI urges caution with regard to provisions that seek to potentially undermine the strict conditions around obtaining consent. The GDPR placed stronger conditions on obtaining consent…
Content type: Video
27th May 2022
Links
You can check out IRPI Media at https://irpi.eu
Their series on surveillance (in Italian) is at https://irpimedia.irpi.eu/sorveglianze/
Their report on Med-Or (in English) is at https://irpimedia.irpi.eu/en-surveillances-medor-leonardo-marco-minniti/
Their report on Cy4Gate (in English) is at https://irpimedia.irpi.eu/en-surveillances-cy4gate-united-arab-emirates/
