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Content type: Long Read
24th February 2020
This piece was written by Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon, who are policy officers at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in India. The piece was originally published on the website Economic Policy Weekly India here.
In order to bring out certain conceptual and procedural problems with health monitoring in the Indian context, this article posits health monitoring as surveillance and not merely as a “data problem.” Casting a critical feminist lens, the historicity of surveillance practices…
Content type: News & Analysis
17th October 2019
Photo by Ray Witlin / World Bank CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
This article has been written by Ambika Tandon, Policy Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Privacy International.
On October 17th 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip Alston, released his thematic report on digital technology, social protection and human rights. Understanding the impact of technology on the provision of social protection – and, by extent, its…
Content type: Video
18th April 2020
PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project speaks with Tasneem Mewa and Ambika Tandon from the Center for Internet and Society about data exploitation in reproductive rights in India.
This podcast is part of a special series from PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project.
The series comes out on the last Monday of every month.
You can listen and subscribe to the podcast where ever you normally find your podcasts:
Spotify
Apple podcasts
Google podcasts
Castbox
Overcast
Pocket…
Content type: Press release
21st April 2020
PI's new report documents 10 tactics that are being developed and deployed to delay or curtail access to reproductive healthcare globally. Especially given the current crisis, as digital services become even more important, we hope this report will highlight how those opposed to reproductive rights are actively developing technical tools to delay or curtail access. A downloadable multi-media asset is attached.
Examples of tech being developed:
Developing digital dossiers about those…
Content type: Examples
12th August 2019
The pregnancy apps many women were using in December 2018 proved to be incapable of handling miscarriages, even though up to 20% of all known pregnancies end this way. There are only two choices: allow the apps to continue sending alerts celebrating the pregnancy's progress or delete the pregnancy entirely, losing all the records they'd saved - information that doctors routinely request. Many menstruation apps, similarly, lack the ability to adapt to long breaks and disrupted cycles, and many…
Content type: News & Analysis
7th March 2019
Creative Commons Photo Credit: Source
In the third episode of the Gender and Privacy Series, we talk about sex and privacy with two female activists: Sarah Jamie Lewis, an expert on the security of internet-connected sex toys, and Joana Varon, founder of the female-led Brazilian NGO Coding Rights.
Listen to the podcast here.
Content type: Video
23rd June 2020
This podcast is part of a special series from PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project.
The series comes out on the last Monday of every month.
You can listen and subscribe to the podcast where ever you normally find your podcasts:
Spotify
Apple podcasts
Google podcasts
Castbox
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Peertube
Youtube
Stitcher
and more...
Content type: Video
23rd January 2020
In this podcast Sara Nelson of PI’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project talks about the US based international anti-abortion organisation Heartbeat International and the technologies they are developing for their international network of affiliate organisations. We also discuss what reproductive rights are and why PI is working on the topic:
Music by Glass Boy, find more of their work here: glassboy.bandcamp.com/album/enjoy (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/)
Content type: Video
24th August 2020
Find out more here: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/3669/documentation-data-exploitation-sexual-and-reproductive-rights
You can listen and subscribe to the podcast where ever you normally find your podcasts:
Spotify
Apple podcasts
Google podcasts
Castbox
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Peertube
Youtube
Stitcher
And more...
Content type: Advocacy
8th July 2020
Privacy International and Hiperderecho made a joint submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) ahead of the Committee finalising the list of issues for the examination of Peru.
The submission builds on research commissioned by Privacy International and carried out by Hiperderecho on the state of reproductive rights in Peru, and how their exercise intersects with privacy and tech.
The submission is available in both English and…
Content type: Advocacy
16th December 2019
Privacy International (PI) welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation. Established in 1990, PI is a non-profit organisation based in London, dedicated to defending the right to privacy around the world.
The right to privacy is one of the precedents used to establish reproductive rights, and it is established by several international and regional legal instruments. The primary link between the two stems from the fact that laws and policies which impede upon individuals’ rights to…
Content type: Advocacy
17th September 2020
Privacy International responded to a call for submissions of the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in situations of crisis.
This submission builds on PI’s research highlighting the ways in which data exploitative technologies can obstruct the realisation of sexual and reproductive rights, and research carried out by our partners on the specific manifestations of these obstacles in multiple countries of…
Content type: Long Read
9th September 2019
In December 2018, Privacy international exposed the dubious practices of some of the most popular apps in the world.
Out of the 36 apps we tested, we found that 61% automatically transfer data to Facebook the moment a user opens the app. This happens whether the user has a Facebook account or not, and whether they are logged into Facebook or not. We also found that some of those apps routinely send Facebook incredibly detailed and sometimes sensitive personal data. Again, it didn’t matter if…
Content type: News & Analysis
11th September 2019
Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash
Our research has shown how some apps like Maya by Plackal Tech and MIA by Mobbap Development Limited were – at the time of the research – sharing your most intimate data about your sexual life and medical history with Facebook.
Other apps like Mi Calendario, Ovulation Calculator by Pinkbird and Linchpin Health were letting Facebook know every time you open the app.
We think companies like theses should do better and we are pleased to see some of them have…
Content type: News & Analysis
28th September 2020
Abortion without privacy guarantees is not safe abortion.
Safe access to abortion is far from guaranteed throughout the world. And in many countries, there are groups working hard to make sure that safe access to this vital component of reproductive healthcare remains out of reach.
Online platforms are the new arena of anti-reproductive advocacy, and those opposed to reproductive rights are increasingly deploying digital, data-exploitative strategies. By using and developing digital…
Content type: News & Analysis
10th April 2020
This week International Health Day was marked amidst a global pandemic which has impacted every region in the world. And it gives us a chance to reflect on how tech companies, governments, and international agencies are responding to Covid-19 through the use of data and tech.
All of them have been announcing measures to help contain or respond to the spread of the virus; but too many allow for unprecedented levels of data exploitation with unclear benefits, and raising so many red flags…
Content type: Video
18th April 2020
PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project speaks with Ruth Taylor, the CEO of the UK-based charity Abortion Support Network about how opposition groups are using misinformation to delay people from accessing safe abortion care.
More here: https://privacyinternational.org/taxonomy/term/677
Content type: Video
20th April 2020
PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project speaks with Nandini Archer from the 50/50 Project at Open Democracy about how Heartbeat International is coordinating and promoting misleading health information globally information through it’s international affiliates.
More here: https://privacyinternational.org/taxonomy/term/677
Content type: Video
18th April 2020
PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project speaks with Dr. Subasri Narasimhan and Dr. Dabney Evans from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in the US about their paper which documents how misleading health information about reproductive health can flow into policy and legislative debates.
More here: https://privacyinternational.org/taxonomy/term/677
A narrative analysis of anti-abortion testimony and legislative debate related to Georgia’s fetal “heartbeat” abortion…
Content type: Long Read
22nd July 2019
Photo by David Werbrouck on Unsplash
This is an ongoing series about the ways in which those searching for abortion information and procedures are being traced and tracked online. This work is part of a broader programme of work aimed at safeguarding the dignity of people by challenging current power dynamics, and redefining our relationship with governments, companies, and within our own communities. As an enabling right, privacy plays an important role in supporting the exercise of…
Content type: Examples
1st October 2019
Rewire.News has reported that Google apparently remains unwilling to differentiate its Maps search results between clinics in the US that offer abortion care and faith-based organisations that do not provide abortion care.
Rewire.News reports that, in contrast Yelp "made a concerted effort" to ensure that the company differentiated between faith-based centres, also known as crisis pregnancy centres in the US, and medical facilities that provided medical reproductive healthcare, including…
Content type: Examples
16th September 2019
Ahead of the Irish referendum to amend the Constitutions of Ireland to allow the parliament to legislative for abortion which took place in May 2018, Google decided to stop all advertising relating to the referendum on all of its advertising platforms, including AdWords and YouTube.
This followed decisions by Facebook to no longer accept advertising relating to the referendum funded by foreign organisations outside Ireland, and Twitter not allowing any advertising in relation to the…
Content type: Examples
23rd July 2019
French website IVG.net, first Google result when typing IVG (Interuption Volontaire de Grossesse or abortion in french), has been exposed as being anti-abortion website spreading misinformation. Offering an official looking "Numero vert" (free to call phone number number), IVG.net attempts to convince pregnant women calling the service that abortion is a high risk operation which will have terrible impact on their health and personal life, pressuring women to not undertake such operation. The…
Content type: Long Read
15th May 2020
This research was commissioned as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights. Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project. Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and our research findings here.
Content type: Long Read
4th June 2020
This research was commissioned as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights. Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project. Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and our research findings here.
1. What are the barriers to access safe and legal abortion care?
In Kenya, access to abortion care is restricted by the Constitution, which provides that: “Abortion is not…
Content type: Long Read
2nd June 2020
This research was commissioned as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights.
Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and our research findings here.
1. What are the barriers to access safe and legal abortion care?
Legal barriers
To identify the barriers experienced by women to access safe and legal abortion care, we have to understand the legal picture. In…
Content type: Long Read
8th June 2020
1. What are the barriers to access safe and legal abortion care?
The Indian state’s approach to reproductive rights historically has focused on population control rather than enhancing individual autonomy and removing structural barriers to reproductive health services, which is reflected in the barriers to provision of services. As a consequence of the early adoption of family planning and population control measures in the 1950s, India was one of the first countries to legislate on abortion…
Content type: Long Read
2nd June 2020
This research was produced by Paz Peña as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights. Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project. Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and our research findings here.
1. What are the barriers to access safe and legal abortion?
According to figures from the Ministry of Health, more than 33 thousand clandestine abortions are…
Content type: Long Read
11th June 2020
1. What are the barriers to access safe and legal abortion care?
Abortion is considered a crime in Brazil, except in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape, when it puts the woman's life at risk or, most recently, in cases of fetal anencephaly. Article 273 of the Penal Code also forbids the sale or distribution of medication that is not registered at Anvisa (National Health Agency), which is the case for abortion pills in Brazil. Misoprostol, the active substance of abortive medicines in the…
Content type: Long Read
2nd June 2020
This research was commissioned as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights.
Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and our research findings here.
1. What are the barriers to access safe and legal abortion care?
Even though abortion is legal in certain cases in Argentina, different types of barriers restrict the access to legal abortions, contribute to…