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Content type: Long Read
2nd February 2018
To celebrate International Data Privacy Day (28 January), PI and its International Network have shared a full week of stories and research, exploring how countries are addressing data governance in light of innovations in technology and policy, and implications for the security and privacy of individuals.
Content type: News & Analysis
2nd February 2018
The recent announcement by the Minister for Justice that serious and organised crime will receive legislative attention from the Government and the Oireachtas is most welcome. However, the stated means of achieving this are deeply concerning for the Irish public and larger digital economy. The statements indicate that the Government intends to follow the British model of surveillance where Irish companies can be compelled to betray their users. Why would any user engage with a service that…
Content type: Long Read
29th January 2018
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 controlling our data and information, the way it is being handled, by whom, and for what purpose. This right is particularly important when it comes to control of how States perform these activities.…
Content type: Explainer
21st February 2018
Video surveillance technologies are deployed in public and private areas for monitoring purposes. Closed-circuit television (CCTV)– a connected network of stationary and mobile video cameras– is increasingly used in public areas, private businesses and public institutions such as schools and hospitals. Systems incorporating video surveillance technologies have far greater powers than simply what the camera sees. Biometric technologies use the transmitted video to profile, sort and identify…
Content type: News & Analysis
16th January 2018
15 November 2013
The following is an excerpt from a Comment originally published by The Guardian, written by Privacy International's Head of Advocacy, Carly Nyst:
From databases to mobile phone apps and SMS systems, GPS tracking and humanitarian drones to biometric registration, new technologies are rapidly becoming central to the delivery of humanitarian and development aid.
Refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict are having their irises scanned and their identity documents digitised. Nurses…
Content type: Advocacy
6th August 2018
This report is presented by Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) and Privacy International (PI). La Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation located in Mexico, dedicated to the defence of human rights in the digital environment. Privacy International (PI) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation located in London, focused on the defence, promotion and protection of the right to privacy around the world.
PI and R3D wish to…
Content type: Advocacy
29th May 2018
This stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International (PI) and the Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA).
Privacy International and the Jordan Open Source Association wish to bring concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to privacy for consideration in Jordan’s upcoming review at the 31st session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.
Content type: Advocacy
29th May 2018
This Universal Periodic Review (“UPR”) stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International and Paradigm Initiative.
Together Privacy International and Paradigm Initiative wish to bring their concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in Nigeria before the Human Rights Council for consideration in Nigeria’s upcoming review at the 31st session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.
Content type: Advocacy
22nd August 2018
This Universal Periodic Review stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International presented to raise concerns regarding the situation of the violation of the right to privacy in New Zealand as part of the 32nd session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group.
Content type: News & Analysis
14th May 2018
In the lead-up to the 30th session of the Universal Periodic Review which took place on 10 May 2018, Fundación Karisma, a partner organisation in the Privacy International Network, joined a coalition of civil society groups in Colombia to raise more awareness about the country's human rights record.
As part of the joint effort, the coalition produced factsheets on various human rights in the Colombian context, including the right to privacy. It is available in both English and Spanish.
Content type: Advocacy
1st March 2018
This stakeholder report is a submission by Dejusticia, Fundación Karisma and Privacy International (PI). Dejusticia is a Colombian human rights organization that provides expert knowledge on human rights. Fundación Karisma is a Colombian civil society organization that seeks to respond to the opportunities and threats that arise in the context of ‘technology for development’ for the exercise of human rights. PI is a human rights organisation that works to advance and promote the right to…
Content type: News & Analysis
21st June 2018
In order to uphold the law and keep us safe, the police can seriously interfere with a range of fundamental human rights. And so transparency and public scrutiny of their actions are essential to protect against misconduct and abuse.
So why is the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) now permitted to operate in secret?
We all have the right to seek information from most public bodies – including the police – under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. When the law was first proposed…
Content type: Explainer
16th February 2018
What is the Global Surveillance Industry?
Today, a global industry consisting of hundreds of companies develops and sells surveillance technology to government agencies around the world. Together, these companies sell a wide range of systems used to identify, track, and monitor individuals and their communications for spying and policing purposes. The advanced powers available to the best equipped spy agencies in the world are being traded around the world. It is a lucrative business, but is…
Content type: Examples
16th July 2018
In 2013, Edward Snowden, working under contract to the US National Security Agency for the consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, copied and leaked thousands of classified documents that revealed the inner workings of dozens of previously unknown surveillance programs. One of these was PRISM, launched in 2007, which let NSA use direct access to the systems of numerous giant US technology companies to carry out targeted surveillance of the companies' non-US users and Americans with foreign contacts by…
Content type: Long Read
31st January 2018
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). But do you know what exactly makes your city “smart”, beyond the marketing term? And what does this have to do with privacy?
Companies and governments will tell you that the more cameras, sensors…
Content type: News & Analysis
7th August 2018
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: Report
24th April 2018
‘Secret Global Surveillance Networks’ is a major PI report, based on an unprecedented international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries.
Our research shows that, globally, the sharing of intelligence is alarmingly under-regulated, opening the door to human rights abuses. Intelligence sharing has evolved dramatically with the rise of new surveillance technologies, enabling governments to collect, store, and share vast troves of personal information, including data…
Content type: News & Analysis
19th January 2018
2017 begun with a progressive Human Rights Council resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age, noting that profiling of individuals may lead to discrimination. It ended with a Security Council resolution on counter-terrorism, calling for profiling of all air travellers and widespread collection and sharing of personal data, as well as introducing biometric technologies on a mass scale.
May this be another example of the tension between human rights laws and counter-terrorism policies…
Content type: Advocacy
6th March 2018
On 6 March 2018, Privacy International participated in an interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy at the 37th Ordinary Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. We highlighted the growing trend of governments embracing hacking to facilitate their surveillance activities, and recommended the development of a human rights analysis of government hacking for surveillance purposes, with the view to forming specific recommendations based on international…
Content type: Press release
7th February 2018
The Case
Privacy International v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs et al. (Bulk Personal Datasets & Bulk Communications Data challenge)
Date: 5-9 June 2017
Time: from 10:00 onwards
Location: Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London WC2A 2LL United Kingdom
Hearing overview
Next week’s hearing follows the Investigatory Powers Tribunal’s earlier judgment in October 2016, which ruled that three issues are to be determined:
a) the impact of EU law…
Content type: Advocacy
24th April 2018
A new Privacy International report based on an international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries has found alarming weaknesses in the oversight arrangements that are supposed to govern the sharing of intelligence between state intelligence agencies, including in the UK. Privacy International urges governments to enact urgent reforms and improve public understanding about the scope of intelligence sharing and the safeguards and oversight currently in place.
Content type: Explainer
22nd February 2018
Phone networks are divided between two networks: the physical and the mobile. The physical runs on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) that serves your home phone. Mobile networks are dominant in the age of communication and are used to relay mobile communications to the PSTN. The most prominent mobile networks are GSM networks (Global System for Mobile communications) and are what we use everyday to communicate with one another. Another system is known as CDMA (Code Division Multiple…
Content type: Report
1st December 2018
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: Press release
9th February 2018
Below is a joint statement from Privacy International and Bytes for All.
This Friday, 27 September, marks the conclusion of the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council, a session which has, for the first time, seen issues of internet surveillance in the spotlight. Privacy International and Bytes for All welcome the attention given at the Human Rights Council to this issue. However, we are concerned about developments which took place that threaten privacy rights and freedom of expression,…
Content type: Examples
2nd May 2018
A new examination of documents detailing the US National Security Agency's SKYNET programme shows that SKYNET carries out mass surveillance of Pakistan's mobile phone network and then uses a machine learning algorithm to score each of its 55 million users to rate their likelihood of being a terrorist. The documents were released as part of the Edward Snowden cache. The data scientist Patrick Ball, director of research at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, which produces scientifically…
Content type: News & Analysis
24th August 2018
This post was written by William Marks, a former volunteer at Privacy International.
The right to privacy is central to the protection of human dignity, and supports and reinforces other rights, such as the right to freedom of expression and association. Privacy International, supported by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, recently submitted a joint stakeholder report to the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding New Zealand’s protection of the right to…
Content type: Long Read
24th April 2018
A major new report published today by Privacy International has identified alarming weaknesses in the oversight arrangements that are supposed to govern the sharing of intelligence between state intelligence agencies.
'Secret Global Surveillance Networks: Intelligence Sharing Between Governments and the Need for Safeguards' is based on an international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries.
Previously undisclosed documents obtained by PI via litigation in the US…
Content type: News & Analysis
14th May 2018
En el 2011 se liquidó el DAS. Las violaciones, excesos y abusos de la inteligencia estatal que comenzaban por la intimidad y terminaban con la vida de los ciudadanos habían producido condenas judiciales a varios exdirectores: claro indicador de que se necesitaba un cambio. Siete años ha tenido el Estado colombiano para ordenar la casa y esta semana someterá sus récords de derechos humanos al examen de los miembros de Naciones Unidas. La evaluación analizará, entre otros cumplimientos, si el…