News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

Press release
A new report released today by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) highlights key technical blind spots in current GCHQ oversight and calls for a new, comprehensive and clear legal framework governing British intelligence agencies' surveillance capability. The report panel, which included
News & Analysis
On July 6th, the company Hacking Team was hacked: over 400GB of administrative documents, source code and emails are now available for download. Documents from the hack confirm once again the claims made in our report Their Eyes on Me, the Moroccan intelligence services made use of Hacking Team's
News & Analysis
Here are eight things we have learned from this week's hack of some 400GB of internal company material and correspondence from Italian surveillance company Hacking Team. The Citizen Lab was right The Citizen Lab, who in 2014 identified some 21 countries that are potential customers of Hacking Team
Press release
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
News & Analysis
Privacy International and twenty-two other organisations from around the world welcome the appointment of Mr Joseph Cannataci as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. Today, the President of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Mr Cannataci to fill the post that was created by
Press release
The UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) today notified the ten NGO claimants in a legal challenge against GCHQ mass surveillance practices that the Tribunal had mistakenly omitted information about unlawful GCHQ actives in their judgment from ten days ago . In an email to the claimants
News & Analysis
The Coalition Against Unlawful Surveillance Exports (CAUSE) has today released a new policy paper calling on the EU to take the opportunity to update its Dual Use Regulation to ensure that surveillance technologies are not exported from Europe and used for human rights violations. The proposals have
Press release
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) today revealed that the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spied on two international human rights organisations, failed to follow ITS own secret procedures and acted unlawfully. The targeted NGOs are the South African Legal Resources Centre (LRC
News & Analysis
A groundbreaking report released today by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, calls on states to ensure security and privacy online by providing “comprehensive protection” through encryption and anonymity tools, warning that blanket measures to restrict online privacy
Press release
Privacy International today filed a legal complaint demanding an end to the bulk collection of phone records and harvesting of other databases, from millions of people who have no ties to terrorism, nor are suspected of any crime. The complaint, filed in the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, is
Press release
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
News & Analysis
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
News & Analysis
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)
News & Analysis
There is a common practice within the surveillance industry that makes the already murky market even harder to track: collaborating companies. Within Privacy International's Surveillance Industry Index there are 83 documents detailing collaborations between companies involved in developing and
News & Analysis
Lebanon was part of the drafting committee for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and by co-sponsoring both UN General Assembly resolutions on the right to privacy in the digital age ( December 2013 and December 2014), Lebanon has recently reaffirmed its commitment to its obligations to
Press release
The Government has quietly ushered through legislation amending the anti-hacking laws to exempt GCHQ from prosecution. Privacy International and other parties were notified of this just hours prior to a hearing of their claim against GCHQ's illegal hacking operations in the Investigatory Powers