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Content type: News & Analysis
11th December 2015
Sometimes it takes an unexpected stranger to remind you what you have, and what you are at risk of losing. Roman Zakharov, a Russian publisher who challenged Russia’s surveillance legislation, is that stranger for many Brits and Europeans. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights judgement on Friday 4 December 2015 was remarkable, not because it tore up the rule book on the jurisprudence surrounding state surveillance in the Council of Europe, but because it followed that rule…
Content type: News & Analysis
24th November 2015
The relationship between users and companies is based primarily on trust. However, many recent developments have the potential to undermine this trust and to question companies loyalties to their users. From excessive data collection and transmission to the failure to guard against basic security risks, one could be forgiven for thinking that the privacy and security interests of users and devices have taken a back seat. Governments of the world are unilaterally endeavouring to make this…
Content type: News & Analysis
2nd February 2015
Late last year, the newly-elected government of Indonesia began to take steps which are almost unheard of today: reforming government communications surveillance powers.
The much-needed development, on the back of the victory of President Joko Widodo, comes at a critical moment in the country's history as the relationships that Indonesians have with technology are changing and growing rapidly. A recent poll revealed that Indonesians consider technology to have had a mostly negative impact on…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th October 2015
Photo: Flickr/Elvert Barnes. Some rights reserved.
In the wider civil society space, the opportunities for travel come thick and fast. From the multi-stakeholder perspective, the Internet Governance Forum will be held during November in João Pessoa, Brazil. There is the Stockholm Internet Forum in, naturally, Stockholm. In freedom of expression there is the International Freedom of Expression Exchange Strategy Conference in Trinidad & Tobago, while End Violence Against Women International'…
Content type: News & Analysis
15th February 2015
Privacy International, Bytes for All and other human rights groups are celebrating a major victory against the Five Eyes today as the UK surveillance tribunal rules that GCHQ acted unlawfully in accessing millions of private communications collected by the NSA up until December 2014.
Today’s judgement represents a monumental leap forward in efforts to make intelligence agencies such as GCHQ and NSA accountable to the millions of individuals whose privacy they have violated.
The case was…
Content type: News & Analysis
28th May 2015
UPDATE (21st July 2015): The deadline for submissions was Monday 20 July, 2015. Privacy International has been working hard since the proposed rule was announced to analyse its potential effectiveness and any potential effects the proposed rule could have for security research.
UPDATE (12th June): The US Bureau of Industry and Security has published (http://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/faqs#subcat200) a clarification of the scope of the proposed rule implementing restrictions on…
Content type: Press release
26th March 2015
The UN's top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, today has passed a landmark resolution endorsing the appointment of an independent expert on the right to privacy. For the first time in the UN's history, an individual will be appointed to monitor, investigate and report on privacy issues and alleged violations in States across the world.
The resolution, which appoints a Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy for an initial period of three years, was spearheaded by Germany and…
Content type: Press release
23rd July 2015
In yet another blow to the UK’s surveillance proponents, the UN Human Rights Committee has criticised the British legal regime governing the interception of communications, observing that it allows for mass surveillance and lacks sufficient safeguards.
The latest in a series of calls for wholesale reform of surveillance laws and practices in Britain, and following on the footsteps of reports by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation David Anderson QC and Royal United Services…
Content type: Press release
18th March 2015
The British Government has admitted its intelligence services have the broad power to hack into personal phones, computers, and communications networks, and claims they are legally justified to hack anyone, anywhere in the world, even if the target is not a threat to national security nor suspected of any crime.
These startling admissions come from a government court document published today by Privacy International. The document was filed by the government in response to two court cases …
Content type: Press release
15th October 2015
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directed intelligence and police officials to use a powerful, invasive malware to spy on domestic political opponents – including parliamentarians, activists and media houses – following the 2011 presidential election, during a period of urban unrest and police violence, according to secret government documents obtained by Privacy International. A feature broadcast piece will air on BBC Newsnight on Thursday, 15 October.
Privacy International's new report, For…
Content type: Long Read
15th October 2015
We hate to say we told you so.
Privacy International has for years warned that powerful surveillance technologies are used to facilitate serious human rights abuses with insufficient technological and legal safeguards against abuse.
We now have the most solid evidence to date that we were right. Our latest investigation uncovers disturbing evidence that substantiates our long held concerns.
Today Privacy International publishes an investigation (PDF) into communications surveillance in…
Content type: Press release
4th June 2015
Governments must accept they have lost the debate over the legitimacy of mass surveillance and reform their oversight of intelligence gathering, Privacy International and Amnesty International said today in a briefing published two years after Edward Snowden blew the lid on US and UK intelligence agencies’ international spying network.
“The balance of power is beginning to shift,” said Edward Snowden in an article published today in newspapers around the world. “With each court victory, with…
Content type: Press release
4th November 2015
Privacy International said
"The true debate on surveillance can begin today. After years of downplaying, obscuring, and denying the Snowden revelations, the Government has finally entered the conversation. For the first time Parliament and the British public will be able to debate mass surveillance powers like bulk interception, bulk hacking, and the data-mining of bulk personal datasets.
This Bill will be one of the most important pieces of legislation for a decade to get right for our civil…
Content type: News & Analysis
6th October 2015
Privacy is a human right, and needs very clear legal protections. 'Safe Harbor' was clear as mud and placed privacy rights globally at risk.
Today's European Court of Justice decision should be no surprise for industry or governments. For over fifteen years the U.S. Government has resisted implementing basic and effective privacy law and created absurd stopgap measures because U.S. Congress is incapable of acting upon what consumers and citizens have long asked for. The fact over 100 countries…
Content type: News & Analysis
7th May 2015
This guest blog is written by Hisham Almiraat, co-founder of Mamfakinch.com and Director of the 'Association des droits numériques' (ADN), an organisation working on human rights and technology in Morocco.
Mamfakinch was launched in February 2011, in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. Its goal was to offer an open forum for all dissenting voices. The website received over a million unique visitors in the first few weeks after it was launched. It quickly became one of the main…
Content type: Long Read
10th February 2015
As Privacy International celebrates Friday's victory against Britain’s security services - the first such victory this century - we cannot help but feel the success is bittersweet.
After all, we may have convinced the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that GCHQ was acting unlawfully in accessing NSA databases filled with billions of emails and messages, but with a few technical adjustments the intelligence services have managed to insure themselves against any further challenge, at least in…
Content type: News & Analysis
4th September 2015
While two of the Vice journalists who were recently arrested in Turkey and charged with terror offenses have now been released, this remain a deeply concerning incident.* It is the latest episode in what is a pincer movement against our right to protect our data.
Two British journalists and their Turkey-based Iraqi translator working for VICE News were arrested last Thursday and charged with "engaging in terrorist activity". According to Turkish authorities, one member of the group had an…
Content type: News & Analysis
6th November 2015
This is a guest piece. It does not necessarily reflect the views or position of Privacy International.
In 1997, plans for a Civil Identification Registry (RIC) were signed into law in Brazil, promising to unify the 27 regional identification registries into a centralized federal one by 2020. The law, which was only enacted in 2010, continues to face obstacles to its implementation, but in 2014 there was a renewed wave of support for the project from the Ministry of Justice. Though the RIC…
Content type: News & Analysis
5th December 2015
Internet Connection Records are a new form of communications data created by the Investigatory Powers Bill at Parts 3 and 4. They constitute an unlawful interference with privacy with the ability to provide a highly detailed record of the activities of individuals, profiling their internet habits.
Clause 62 of the Investigatory Powers Bill (“IP Bill”) permits a wide range of public authorities to collect Internet Connection Records, however throughout debates on this highly controversial new…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th May 2015
The Swiss Federal Council has introduced a major amendment to its export licensing legislation in order to ensure surveillance technologies that might be used for human rights abuses are not exported from Switzerland.
What this means is that Swiss authorities must reject companies’ requests to export internet and mobile surveillance technologies if there “are reasonable grounds to believe” that the items could be used for repression in the country of destination.
The amendment follows…
Content type: News & Analysis
14th December 2015
In an enormous breakthrough for those seeking transparency and accountability to the shadowy surveillance industry, the Swiss Government has been forced to publish the list of export licenses for surveillance technologies and other equipment, including details of their cost and destination.
The decision by the Federal Information and Data Protection Commissioner comes on the heels of consistent pressure from Privacy International, Swiss journalists, and several Members of Parliament on…
Content type: Press release
1st December 2015
A 400 gigabyte trove of internal documents belonging to surveillance company Hacking Team has been released online. Hacking team sells intrusive hacking tools that have allegedly been used by some of the most repressive regimes in the world.
The documents reportedly confirm Hacking Team has customers in 35 countries, including some that routinely abuse human rights. These documents seemingly validate research conducted by Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global…
Content type: Press release
6th July 2015
A 400 gigabyte trove of internal documents belonging to surveillance company Hacking Team has been released online. Hacking team sells intrusive hacking tools that have allegedly been used by some of the most repressive regimes in the world.
The documents reportedly confirm Hacking Team has customers in 35 countries, including some that routinely abuse human rights. These documents seemingly validate research conducted by Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global…
Content type: Press release
2nd December 2015
This is Privacy International's submission in response to the Science and Technology Committee's call for evidence on the draft Investigatory Powers Bill.
Content type: News & Analysis
1st April 2015
Privacy International today is releasing a report about surveillance in Morocco, featuring four interviews with individuals who have been subjected to state surveillance. Stepping away from our traditional approach to documenting surveillance, we decided to give a platform to the people who have been targeted.
The interviews reveal a multi-layered oppressive system, where law enforcement agents film the keyhole of your door and interrogate your neighbours where; nationalist hacker groups get…
Content type: News & Analysis
6th November 2015
With powers to snoop on our communications that are unprecedented anywhere in the world, it is essential the Investigatory Powers Bill doesn't let politicians decide who is spied on.
The bill, if it is passed, aims to give the police and intelligence agencies sweeping powers to scoop up our emails, phone calls and text messages; and access details about when, where and with whom we communicate; and even hack into our computers and smartphones. At Privacy International, we have many concerns…
Content type: News & Analysis
13th March 2015
Today, on behalf of 92 human rights organisations around the world, an oral statement was delivered before the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling on the Council to establish a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy
Negotiations are on-going at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for the establishment of a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. If established, the Rapporteur will provide much-needed leadership and guidance on developing an understanding of the scope…
Content type: Press release
10th November 2015
Privacy International has today written to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the secret court that hears complaints about the UK's surveillance regime, to demand that the Government comes clean about when and how it began collecting bulk communications data in the UK, and just as importantly, who knew of and approved the operation.
Last Wednesday, on the very day that the Government published its draft Investigatory Powers Bill, an era-defining piece of legislation that the Home…
Content type: Press release
15th February 2015
Privacy International today has launched a platform and campaign to allow anyone in the world to request whether Britain’s intelligence agency GCHQ has illegally spied on them.
The platform and campaign has been developed in response to a recent court ruling that GCHQ unlawfully obtained millions of private communications from the NSA up until December 2014. This decision allows not only British citizens, but anyone in the world, to ask GCHQ if the individual’s records were unlawfully shared…
Content type: Press release
10th April 2015
Privacy International and several other human rights organisations are taking the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights over its mass surveillance practices, after a judgement last year found that collecting all internet traffic flowing in and out of the UK and bulk intelligence sharing with the United States was legal.
The appeal, filed last week by Privacy International, Bytes for All, Amnesty International, Liberty, and other partners, comes in response to a ruling in December…