Search
Content type: Examples
On the night of June 23, 2016, as the polls closed Britain's Sky News broadcast what sounded like a concession statement from Nigel Farage, the leader of the campaign to leave the EU, plus a YouGov exit poll indicating that the country had voted to remain; over an hour later, Farage reiterated his concession to the Press Association. The combination pushed up the pound on the world's foreign exchanges. A few hours later, when the true result was announced, the pound crashed - but in between a…
Content type: News & Analysis
European leaders met last week in Brussels to discuss what is supposed to be two separate issues, the next trillion euro-plus budget and migration. In truth, no such separation exists: driven by nationalists and a political mainstream unable to offer any alternative but to implement their ideas, the next budget is in fact all about migration.
This strategy contained within the budget will get the approval of Hilary Clinton, who recently told the Guardian that ‘Europe needs to get a handle on…
Content type: Long Read
Photo credit: Francisco Javier Argel
Questions of identification and ID, with their associated privacy risks, are only increasing. There are multiple dimensions to understanding the impact of ID and identification; a key one is to understand how it can exclude. This is why Privacy International is conducting research to explore this important and underreported aspect.
Read our case studies: Carolina and Iliana.
In the identity discourse, identity is often closely linked to themes of “…
Content type: Advocacy
Image source
The EU extensively bolsters the surveillance and border control capabilities of governments around the world – and is set to dramatically increase such support. Below, we look at how some of these existing funds are being used, how their proposed expansion will undermine people’s privacy around the world for decades to come, and what needs to be done about it.
Migration has dominated the recent EU agenda and will once again be central during this week’s European Council meeting…
Content type: News & Analysis
Creative Commons Photo Credit: Source
In September 2018, a month after Argentina lawmakers voted against the legalisation of abortion, we spoke to Eduardo Ferreyra from the Buenos Aires-based Asociacion por los Derechos Civiles about the role of privacy in the abortion debate. Also joining us in this second episode of the Gender and Privacy Series is Ambika Tandon from the Centre for Internet and Society in India to discuss the intersection between privacy and bodily autonomy.…
Content type: Advocacy
Consumers benefit from the existence of competitive markets, in which they can freely choose among a wide range of products and services. Competition policy plays an important role in this regard by ensuring that competition is not disrupted in a way that can harm consumers directly (e.g. leading to price increases or less choice) or indirectly (e.g. weakening competition as a process by hampering the ability of firms to compete on the merits).
Content type: Press release
Consumer groups, NGOs and industry call jointly for the Council of the EU to advance ePrivacy reform
On Monday 3 December, a coalition of more than 30 consumer groups, NGOs and industry representatives sent a letter to EU Ministers and the Council of the EU calling for the conclusion of the negotiations on the reform of the ePrivacy legislation.
The letter was sent prior to yesterday's (4 December) meeting in the TTE Council, with signatories sharing concerns over the slow progress of the negotiations in the Council of the EU despite the repeated scandals that demonstrate the clear and…
Content type: Report
In December 2018, the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders-Kenya published a report analysing the needs and concerns of human rights defenders (HRD) in relation to privacy, data protection and communications surveillance.
A summary of their findings is below. Access the full report on their website.
Content type: News & Analysis
Our team wanted to see how data companies that are not used to being in the public spotlight would respond to people exercising their data rights. You have the right under the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") to demand that companies operating in the European Union (either because they are based here or target their products or services to individuals in the EU) delete your data within one month. We wrote to seven companies and requested that they delete our data, and we've made…
Content type: Advocacy
Today, Privacy International has filed complaints against seven data brokers (Acxiom, Oracle), ad-tech companies (Criteo, Quantcast, Tapad), and credit referencing agencies (Equifax, Experian) with data protection authorities in France, Ireland, and the UK.
It’s been more than five months since the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. Fundamentally, the GDPR strengthens rights of individuals with regard to the protection of their data, imposes more…
Content type: Long Read
Photo Credit: Max Pixel
The fintech sector, with its data-intensive approach to financial services, faces a looming problem. Scandals such as Cambridge Analytica have brought public awareness about abuses involving the use of personal data from Facebook and other sources. Many of these are the same data sets that the fintech sector uses. With the growth of the fintech industry, and its increase in power and influence, it becomes essential to interrogate this use of data by the…
Content type: Long Read
Since 2004, October has been designated National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the United States. Many other countries have followed suit, as part of the effort to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity, and how we can all work together to improve it.
However, cyber security (or sometimes, just ‘cyber’) has not only become a term with multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings - that go from digital security or digital diplomacy to criminal activities with a digital…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International encourages the European Commission to consider ways to reform or at least re-interpret competition regulation to address the data protection implications and the broader societal challenges posed by the exploitation of data by big corporations. This includes, for example, systematic consideration of data protection issues (including though consultation with relevant data protection authorities and organisations protecting privacy and consumer rights) when assessing mergers…
Content type: Advocacy
Both “cyber security” and “cyber crime” are terms widely used but often poorly understood. This briefing provides an overview of terminology, concepts and trends in addressing cyber security and cyber crime. It describes the differences between them and associated challenges for the protection of peoples’ security and their human rights. It also highlights key elements and examples from cyber security frameworks and cyber crime legislation globally. The aim is to provide a basis for…
Content type: Long Read
Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgement in Big Brother Watch & Others V. the UK. Below, we answer some of the main questions relating to the case.
What's the ruling all about?
In a nutshell, one of the world's most important courts, the European Court of Human Rights, yesterday found that certain UK laws about how intelligence agencies can spy on our internet communications breach our human rights. These surveillance laws have meant that the UK intelligence…
Content type: News & Analysis
Our intervention comes on the back of mounting evidence that the South African state’s surveillance powers have been abused, and so-called “checks & balances” in RICA have failed to protect citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.
Among our core arguments are:
That people have a right to be notified when their communications have been intercepted so that they can take action when they believe their privacy has been unlawfully breached. Currently RICA prevents such notification, unlike…
Content type: News & Analysis
Photo was found here
This essay was published in The Sur International Journal of Human Rights, Issue 27, July 2018.
Abstract:
This essay focuses on elections in Kenya and analyses the use of technology and the exploitation of personal data in both the electoral process and campaigning. We only need to look to Kenya’s election history to understand why it is important. The 2007/2008 election resulted in violence that killed over 1,000 people and displaced over 600,000. The 2013 election was…
Content type: Advocacy
This photo originally appeared here.
For years, Privacy International and our partners in Kenya have been promoting the right to privacy in Kenya through research and investigations into government and private sector policies and practices and advocating for the adoption and enforcement of the strongest data protection and privacy safeguards.
The need for Kenya to adopt a comprehensive data protection framework (in addition to strengthening privacy protections in other legislation) has always…
Content type: Report
Countries with powerful security agencies are spending literally billions to equip, finance and train security and surveillance agencies around the world — including authoritarian regimes. This is resulting in entrenched authoritarianism, further facilitation of abuse against people, and diversion of resources from long-term development programmes.
Privacy International's report 'Teach 'em to Phish: State Sponsors of Surveillance' examines this problem closely, providng examples from US, China…
Content type: Long Read
Privacy International (PI) has today released a new report, 'Teach 'em to Phish: State Sponsors of Surveillance', showing how countries with powerful security agencies are training, equipping, and directly financing foreign surveillance agencies.
Spurred by advances in technology, increased surveillance is both powered by and empowering rising authoritarianism globally, as well as attacks on democracy, rights, and the rule of law.
As well as providing a background to the issue, the report…
Content type: Press release
Privacy International has today released a report that looks at how powerful governments are financing, training and equipping countries — including authoritarian regimes — with surveillance capabilities. The report warns that rather than increasing security, this is entrenching authoritarianism.Countries with powerful security agencies are spending literally billions to equip, finance, and train security and surveillance agencies around the world — including authoritarian regimes. This is…
Content type: News & Analysis
As the international cyber security debate searches for new direction, little attention is paid to what is going on in Africa. Stepping over the remains of the UN Group of Governmental Experts, and passing by the boardrooms of Microsoft struggling to deliver their Digital Geneva Convention, African nations are following their own individual paths.
Unfortunately, these paths increasingly prioritise intrusive state surveillance and criminalisation of legitimate expression online as…
Content type: Press release
Photo credit: Forbrukerrådet
The Norwegian Consumer Council has today published a report which shows how Facebook and Google appear to push users into sharing personal data, and raises questions around how such practices are GDPR compliant.
Off the back of the analysis, Privacy International is joining NCC and several other consumer and privacy groups in Europe to ask European data protection authorities to investigate whether the companies are acting in accordance with GDPR. Copies of the…
Content type: Press release
Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights Group have joined over 60 NGOs, community groups, and academics across the European Union to file complaints to the European Commission. The complaints call for the EU governments to stop requiring companies to store all communications data. The practice was ruled unlawful by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in two separate judgments in 2014 and 2016. The UK complaint was filed by Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights…
Content type: News & Analysis
This piece originally appeared here.
The tech industry is ramping up its attack and promulgation of myths around the ePrivacy regulation, as shown by Julia Apostle’s op-ed “We survived GDPR, but now another EU privacy law looms” (June 14). Let’s set the record straight.
Myth #1: the ePrivacy regulation will be detrimental for innovation. This predictable and tired argument is made anytime companies face regulation. It is particularly fallacious in this case. The aim of the ePrivacy regulation…
Content type: Advocacy
Tanto la privacidad como la seguridad son esenciales para proteger a los individuos, su autonomía y su dignidad. El detrimento de la privacidad implica el detrimento de la seguridad de los individuos, sus dispositivos y la infraestructura de la que forman parte. La gente necesita privacidad para sentirse libremente segura y proteger su información, así como para gozar plenamente de otros derechos.
Una cantidad cada vez mayor de Gobiernos en el mundo está recurriendo también al hackeo para…
Content type: News & Analysis
Actualmente, las empresas tecnológicas se encuentran inmersas en constante cambio. Uno de ellos es la creciente importancia que ha cobrado la seguridad digital, convirtiéndose en una prioridad. Que un emprendimiento resguarde su seguridad digital significa que puede gestionar los riesgos asociados a mantener la confidencialidad, integridad y disponibilidad de su información.
En este contexto, resulta de gran relevancia que las personas responsables del emprendimiento digital y el…
Content type: News & Analysis
El objetivo es facilitar a la sociedad civil una guía para la navegación de este organismo, efectuar un diagnóstico que permita situar cualquier persona interesada sobre la actualidad de la temática a nivel regional y descubrir la agenda de seguridad digital que sostiene la OEA en el continente.
Finalmente, concluimos con una serie de breves recomendaciones dirigidas a los organismos de la OEA. Con ello, esperamos que este órgano reconozca el papel que puede jugar como catalizador en el…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy and security are both essential to protecting individuals, including their autonomy and dignity. Undermining privacy undermines the security of individuals, their devices and the broader infrastructure. People need privacy to freely secure themselves, their information, and fully enjoy other rights.
A growing number of governments around the world are embracing hacking to facilitate their surveillance activities. When governments hack for surveillance purposes, they seek to…
Content type: News & Analysis
Nota de prensa
Peruanos rutinariamiente otorgan y son sometidos a verificación de sus datos personales y biométricos (huella digital, retina) en entidades públicas y privadas sin ser informados claramente de la finalidad y tratamiento posterior de la información.
RENIEC ocupa un rol predominante dentro del ecosistema nacional para dotar de coherencia al sistema de identificación que emplea tecnología biométrica. Sin embargo, pese a contar con diferentes estándares y medidas de seguridad en el…