Reports

Reports, Long Reads, Country Reports

Long Read

Don't Celebrate Cellebrite, Because Your Phone Is at Risk

The recent back and forth between Apple and the FBI over security measures in place to prevent unauthorised access to data has highlighted the gulf in understanding of security between technologists and law enforcement. Modern debates around security do not just involve the state and the individual

Report

The Right to Privacy in New Zealand

Privacy International notes New Zealand’s written replies to the list of issues prior to reporting in relation to the New Zealand’s laws, policies and practices related to interception of personal communications. A review of the security and intelligence legislation is currently underway in

Report

International Women's Day 2016: Initiative of the Privacy International Network

The right to privacy is a qualified right. Gender is not and cannot be its qualification. For this year’s International Women’s Day, the Privacy International Network is sharing some of its successes as well as the challenges and opportunities we face in at the intersection of gender issues and the

Long Read

Tracking the global state of surveillance

Today, Privacy International is publishing the result of a global effort to benchmark surveillance policies and practices in the countries that are part of the Privacy International Network. We’re calling it the ‘State of Surveillance’. We designed a survey of questions based on some key issues

Report

The President's Men? Inside The Technical Research Department, The Secret Player In Egypt's Intelligence Infrastructure

Privacy International's new investigation (available in English and in Arabic), 'THE PRESIDENT'S MEN? Inside the Technical Research Department', sheds light on the Technical Research Department, a secret unit of the Egyptian intelligence infrastructure that has purchased surveillance equipment from

Long Read

The President's Men? Inside The Technical Research Department, The Secret Player In Egypt's Intelligence Infrastructure

It was summer 2014 when we first came across the acronym TRD while sifting through documents from the company Nokia Siemens Networks (Nokia) that had been leaked to Privacy International. The acronym was explained in the documents: it stood for Technical Research Department. What we learned from the

Long Read

Investigatory Powers Tribunal Rules GCHQ Hacking Lawful

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (“IPT”) today held that GCHQ hacking of computers, mobile devices and networks is lawful, wherever it occurs around the world. We are disappointed that the IPT has not upheld our complaint and we will be challenging its findings. Our complaint is the first UK legal

Long Read

Compliant or complicit? Thai Government made American industry complicit in speech prosecution

Written by Eva Blum-Dumontet A recent case of lèse-majesté in Thailand (speaking ill of the monarchy) is a worrying example of how Western companies do not just work with governments that fall short of international human rights standards, but can actually facilitate abuses of human rights. Our

Report

Privacy International Submission to the Science and Technology Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill

In response to the Government publishing proposed new surveillance powers in November 2015, Privacy International submitted this highly detailed analysis to the Science and Technology Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill in November 2015. Our report proposes significant changes across

Report

For God and My President: State Surveillance In Uganda

Privacy International's new report, For God and My President: State Surveillance in Uganda, exposes the secret surveillance operation and the government's attempts to buy further powerful surveillance tools, including a national communications monitoring centre and intrusion malware, in the absence

Long Read

Uganda's Grand Ambitions Of Secret Surveillance

We hate to say we told you so. Privacy International has for years warned that powerful surveillance technologies are used to facilitate serious human rights abuses with insufficient technological and legal safeguards against abuse. We now have the most solid evidence to date that we were right. Our

Report

Demand/Supply: Exposing The Surveillance Industry In Colombia

Over a dozen international companies are supplying powerful communications surveillance technology in Colombia. Privacy International examines the actors across the world involved in facilitating state surveillance. The report is available in English and Spanish.

Report

Shadow State: Surveillance, Law And Order In Colombia

For nearly two decades, the Colombian government has been expanding its capacity to spy on the private communications of its citizens. Privacy International's investigation reveals the state of Colombia's overlapping, unchecked systems of surveillance, including mass surveillance, that are

Report

Tipping the scales: Security and Surveillance in Pakistan

The Pakistani government has significantly expanded its communication interception activities. This Privacy International report covers the intelligence services plan to capture all IP-traffic in Pakistan and other initiatives, pointing to gaps in the laws governing surveillance.

Advocacy

The Right to Privacy in South Africa

This stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International (PI) and the Right2Know Campaing. PI is a human rights organisation that works to advance and promote the right to privacy and fight surveillance around the world. PI wishes to bring concerns about the protection and promotion of the

Report

Securing Safe Spaces Online: Encryption, online anonymity and human rights

This report is the result of a collaboration between Privacy International, ARTICLE 19, and the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Harvard Law School. IHRC conducted desk research as well as interviews with individuals working in civil society organisations in the countries examined. It