Search
Content type: Long Read
As we said before, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandals are a wake-up call for policy makers. And also a global issue. People around the world are concerned by the exploitation of their data. The current lack of transparency into how companies are using people’s data is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.
There is an entire hidden ecosystem of companies harvesting and sharing personal data. From credit scoring and insurance quotations to targeted political communication, this…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by Karisma Foundation
7:03: Catalina leaves her apartment and a security camera follows her down the hall, another one observes her in the elevator while she fixes her hair. As she exits the building, the warden tells her she doesn’t have to fix her hair because she is already pretty as she is. She gets to the parking lot where another two cameras look at her while she gets into her car.
8:00: She is heading to an open data workshop organized by the Colombian government in a…
Content type: Long Read
To mark International Women’s Day 2018, Privacy International and some of our partner organisations - Datos Protegidos, Derechos Digitales, the National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders-Kenya, the Karisma Foundation, and the Foundation for Media Alternatives – are telling the stories of women across the world as told by their data over the next seven days (for us, it’s International Women’s Week!).
Gender inequality has many complex dimensions and data exploitation is yet another.…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by Privacy International
07:06: Camille’s smart pillow sends a signal to her smartphone that it’s time for her to wake up. She checks the quality of sleep on the app – last night was not great. Because the pillow tracks the motion in her bed, the company knows what else she may (or may not) have been up to. But the company doesn’t just track her when she is in bed. By downloading the app, Camille has also authorised access to her location wherever she goes, her camera, her contact…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by the Foundation for Media Alternatives
7:01: Naomi wakes up and gets ready for the day.
7:58: Naomi books an Uber ride to Bonifacio Global City (BGC), where she has a meeting. She pays with her credit card. While Naomi is waiting for her Uber, she googles restaurant options for her dinner meeting in Ortigas.
9:00: While her Uber ride is stuck in traffic on EDSA (a limited access highway circling Manilla), Naomi’s phone automatically connects to the free WiFi offered by the…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by Datos Protegidos
04:16: Carolina can´t sleep. She grabs her mobile from the nightstand next to her bed to check her WhatsApp notifications and read some tweets. She decides to disconnect to and tries to go back to sleep.
07:00: Carolina is woken by her mobile phone alarm. She picks it up and checks her social networks and messages again. To her astonishment, she finds a message in a WhatsApp group from her former college classmate Pablo at 5:25 asking if anyone was still…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by Derechos Digitales
03:00: Maritza wakes up and gets ready. It’s still dark. She has to go stand in a queue outside the nearest grocery store, where after several hours her fingerprint will be scanned to retrieve her personal information from a governmental database. This will tell the cashier not only her address, full name and phone number, but also if she already bought her allotted ration of food that month. If so, she will be sent back empty-handed. There are drones flying…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by the National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders - Kenya and Privacy International
05:00: Mercy’s alarm goes off. She gets out of the warmth of the bed into the piercing morning chill. She switches on the bedside lamp and reaches for her Bible. She then checks in onto her devotional group on Facebook, as she does every morning. Her Facebook app keeps track of her location, and the time she wakes up.
05:24: She steps into the shower and prepares for her day in the…
Content type: News & Analysis
Written by Privacy International
08:27: Jen gets on the London Underground to go to work. She uses her contactless debit card to pay for the tube, so Transport for London knows where she is travelling to and from and her bank knows when she takes the tube.
08:36: The public WiFi on the tube means that even when Jen doesn’t connect to it, her every step inside the underground is tracked. The data will eventually be sold to advertisers.
08:58: Jen arrives at work. As with all the lower…
Content type: News & Analysis
Image source: AFP
Earlier this month, the Kenyan daily The Star reported that UK-based data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica had been quietly contracted by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party in a bid to win himself a second term in office. State House officials were quick to deny the claims, while the company itself issued no comment.
Cambridge Analytica has exploded onto the scene following revelations that its psychometric profiling techniques were used and reportedly played a role in…
Content type: Press release
28 October 2015
Leading privacy and consumer organizations meeting in Amsterdam this week called on data protection officials around the world to support a meaningful legal framework that would protect the fundamental rights of both citizens and consumers in the online era.
In a statement issued today at the International Data Protection and Privacy Conference, the organizations criticized a just-released “Bridges” report that primarily recommended a continuation of industry self-regulation…
Content type: Press release
A European privacy group claimed today that dozens of amendments to the new Data Protection Regulation being proposed by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are being copied word-for-word from corporate lobby papers, with MEPs frequently failing to even remember their own amendments. Max Schrems, of the website and campaign Europe v Facebook, noticed striking similarities between proposed amendments and lobby papers written by representatives of Amazon, eBay, the American Chamber of…