News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

News & Analysis
The Supreme Court has ruled that there is a fundamental right to privacy under the Indian constitution, establishing that “The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty”. This was a unanimous ruling by a bench of nine supreme court justices, who
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The following op-ed appeared in openDemocracy, written by Edin Omanovic, Research Officer at Privacy International: It's not surprising that some of the states in Central Asia spy on people. Authoritarianism across the world relies on the intrusion into, and lack thereof, of a private sphere. From
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The following appeared in the Daily Telegraph, and was written by Carly Nyst, Legal Director of Privacy International: "Robert Hannigan, the new head of GCHQ, announced his arrival this week with a call for “greater co-operation” with security forces by tech companies. Hannigan’s article in the
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Al Jazeera recently published an investigation into the shadowy trade of communications surveillance technologies. Their undercover reporter revealed four companies offering to illegally sell highly intrusive surveillance technologies to the governments of South Sudan and Iran, both of which are
Press release
The release of a new report by Privacy International exposes Colombia's intelligence agencies' previously unknown history of developing communications surveillance capabilities outside of lawful authority. The report “ Shadow State: Surveillance law and order in Colombia” reveals, via previously
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Privacy International has today written to government ministers, members of the opposition, and oversight bodies reaffirming its call for the UK government to reveal secret intelligence sharing arrangements with the United States. The original UKUSA agreement — drafted shortly after World War II —
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The elections in our midst here, there, and everywhere are increasingly resulting in governments who introduce policies that result in leaps backwards for dignity, equality, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Whether it is Poland or the Philippines, governments are overriding essential safeguards
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This piece originally appeared in Open Democracy here . As the UK Parliament returns from its summer break, everyone’s back to talking about Brexit. But there’s another policy of existential significance to our democracy that we really need to be talking about. I refer here to the innocuously named
Press release
17 November 2015 A new Privacy International investigation reveals Microsoft's complicity in a serious case of Government persecution in Thailand. It is a shocking example of how Western companies not only work with governments that fall considerably short of international human rights standards
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Below is the introduction to Privacy International's 2017 International Women's Day report, which highlights the recent work of the PI Network on privacy, surveillance, and gender. Many of the challenges at the intersection of women’s rights and technology as it relates to privacy and surveillance
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7 July 2017 War profiteers are finding the data business easy going. The have wielded their unwarranted influence and applied their business model of causing and then profiting from insecurity and applied it to the digital age; the results have been more profit for them and less liberty for you
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18 October 2013 The following is an excerpt from an article written that originally was published by IFEX, and is written by Carly Nyst, Head of International Advocacy at Privacy International: The reality of the modern world is that governments – both of our own countries, and of foreign states –
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14th August 2017 We found the image here. We work to collect the minimum amount of data that we need from you to do our jobs within the resources we have, and to protect and use that data in an ethical manner. We are expanding the ways we engage with our supporters, by rebuilding our technical
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There are three good reasons why security is so hard for NGOs. First, we are afraid to speak about meaningful security. Second, we focus on the wrong areas of security and in turn spend money and prioritise the wrong things. Third, we struggle to separate the world we want from the worlds we build
News & Analysis
Early on Wednesday morning the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill was approved by Pakistan’s National Assembly. The Bill, which is almost universally acknowledged as “controversial” had been criticised by opposition members, industry and civil society at numerous stages. Civil society
Press release
Key points Privacy International has obtained previously unseen government documents that reveal British spy agency GCHQ collects social media information on potentially millions of people. GCHQ collected and accesses this information by gaining access to private companies’ databases. Letters