News and Analysis

FREAK, the latest security vulnerability to be exposed that has implications for millions of supposedly secure websites, is just the most recent example of something privacy and security advocates have been saying for some time: when governments meddle with our security technologies, it hurts us all

The focus on the right to privacy continues at the United Nations, with Kenya, Turkey, and Sweden being recently challenged over their surveillance practices during the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review of States' human rights records. The explicit mention of the right to privacy in

Privacy International, Bytes for All and other human rights groups are celebrating a major victory against the Five Eyes today as the UK surveillance tribunal rules that GCHQ acted unlawfully in accessing millions of private communications collected by the NSA up until December 2014. Today’s

A year after the Eyes Wide Open program was launched here at Privacy International, we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the processes and justifications that agencies like GCHQ use to make their spying legally compliant. Tocqueville, a great philosopher of law stated: “If they prize

Late last year, the newly-elected government of Indonesia began to take steps which are almost unheard of today: reforming government communications surveillance powers. The much-needed development, on the back of the victory of President Joko Widodo, comes at a critical moment in the country's

UPDATE: Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has announced plans to disband Argentina's intelligence agency. Go here for more, and keep reading below. This post was originally published on 20 January 2015 by Privacy International's partner in Argentina, the Asociación por los

Intelligence sharing agreements can be open and transparent. In fact, the Five Eyes have already disclosed information sharing agreements that relate to key international law enforcement and national security measures. They’re called mutual legal assistance treaties, or MLATs, and they’ve existed

The following was written by Mike Rispoli, Communications Manager at Privacy International, and appeared in the 'Journalism in Europe' discussion series, hosted by Central European University: "The response by world leaders to the horrific terrorist attacks in France earlier this month has been all

15 January 2015 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

In the wake of tragic attacks in France, politicians from across the world are calling for dramatically expanded surveillance powers, to spy on our phonecalls, ban encrypted communications such as WhatsApp and iMessage, and store details about our international travels for years on end. If it feels

The right to privacy is on the frontline of a struggle that has seen a number of other constitutionally protected rights threatened during the last few bloody months of Kenya's ongoing security crisis. After at least 64 people were killed in two attacks by Al Shabaab militants in late 2014, members

Going into 2014, there were high hopes for advancing privacy protections and to finally have the debate around surveillance we've been clamouring for. Privacy was even Dictionary.com's word of the year in 2013. Europe was on the edge of passing new strong privacy laws, despite protests from industry