Europe

Report and Analysis

Long Read

Q&A: Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights rules UK mass surveillance laws violate privacy and freedom of expression rights

On 25 May 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court issued a landmark ruling on UK mass surveillance practices. Below we answer some of your questions.

Long Read

Surveillance Company Cellebrite Finds a New Exploit: Spying on Asylum Seekers

Cellebrite, a surveillance firm marketing itself as the “global leader in digital intelligence”, is marketing its digital extraction devices at a new target: authorities interrogating people seeking asylum. Israel-based Cellebrite, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sun Corporation, markets forensic tools

Long Read

New U.K. Law Fails European Court Standards on Mass Interception Disclosed by Snowden

This piece was originally published in Just Security. Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights issued a major judgment in three consolidated cases challenging the U.K. government’s mass interception program, which was first revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. That judgment finds

Long Read

UK mass surveillance violates your rights

UK mass interception law violates human rights - but the fight against mass surveillance continues (from 2018)

The European Court of Human Rights ruled today that the UK government's mass interception program violates the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. The Court held that the program "is incapable of keeping the 'interference' to what is 'necessary in a democratic society'". This finding is an

Long Read

Why the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal is a wake-up call for all governments: Seven steps for a global response

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

Long Read

Open letter to European member states on the ePrivacy reform

Today Privacy International together with 27 other organisations from across Europe urge European governments to strengthen the protection of privacy and security of online communications. The proposal to reform e-privacy in Europe was launched in January 2017. However, despite the clear and urgent

News

10th July 2019

The fight against mass surveillance continues in our 10 Human Rights Orgs case

11th April 2019

Communities at risk: How governments are using tech to target migrants

24th January 2019

Catt v the United Kingdom - police powers to retain personal data in "extremism database" violates the rights of peace activist

23rd January 2019

Too big to care? Google and the exploitation of your data

21st January 2019

Statement on CNIL Google GDPR fine

2nd November 2018

Italy's Supreme Court decision limits hacking powers and applies safeguards

13th September 2018

A one minute read about our major legal victory against UK mass surveillance laws in 2018

13th September 2018

Press release: Campaigners win vital battle against UK mass surveillance at European Court of Human Rights (2018)

Examples of Abuse

Want to know how this translate in the real world? Here is the latest example in the news.

Europe spreads surveillance technologies to help curb coronavirus spread

As Europeans went back to work and social spaces in early summer 2020, they discovered that these had been newly equipped with a variety of technologies that brought surveillance with them as the price of preventing a resurgence of the coronavirus. Among the tools being adopted: a Romware Covid

See more examples of abuse

Our Advocacy

PI joins open letter to Facebook regarding ads transparency

UPDATE 13 February: Facebook announced that it would open up its Ad Archive API next month. Read Mozilla's statement about the response here.

On 11 February 2019, Privacy International joined Mozilla and 36 organisations in an open letter to Facebook call on Facebook to make good on its commitments to provide more transparency around political advertising ahead of the 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections.

Specifically, our open letter urges Facebook to:

Roll out a functional, open Ad Archive API that enables advanced research and development of tools that analyse political ads served to Facebook users in the EU
Ensure that all political advertisements are clearly distinguished from other content and are accompanied by key targeting criteria such as sponsor identity and amount spent on the platform in all EU countries
Cease all harassment of good faith researchers who are building tools to provide greater transparency into the advertising on Facebook’s platform.