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Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
In the spring of 2020 the Trump administration pushed FEMA to award more than $760 million in contracts, bypassing the usual bidding process. The largest of these was a White House-ordered March $96 million no-bid contract to AirBoss of America for 100,000 powered respirators and filters for medical workers treating patients in New York for delivery in July. More than a quarter of the federal government’s more than 2,000 orders worth nearly $2.5 billion were signed without competitive bidding…
Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
The UK Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government hired the AI firm Faculty, which had previously been contracted by prime ministerial special advisor Dominic Cummings to work for the Vote Leave campaign and which lists two current and former Conservative ministers among its shareholders, to monitor and analyse social media “to understand public perception and emerging issues of concern to HMG arising from the COVID-19 crisis”. Faculty was paid £400,000 for the work. The contract…
Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
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 Radius bracelet, which beeps whenever two workers get too close to each other; laser technology to ensure social distancing in shopping malls; mask detection technology, facial recognition to ensure…
Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Florida law graduates are reporting that they have encountered significant data breaches, including attempted hacks on bank accounts, as a result of using software from Missouri-based ILG Technologies that they were required to download in order to take the bar exam virtually, a necessity because of the pandemic. The online test was later cancelled, but since then would-be test takers have reported attempts originating from Russia to access sensitive accounts and, in a few cases, having their…
Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Standard PCR tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people in the US who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of virus, and may not be contagious. Rather than skipping testing people without symptoms, as the US CDC has suggested, the solution may be to use less sensitive, though less accurate, rapid tests, which could be performed more frequently and find people when they’re most infectious. However, additional help might lie in including in the results sent to doctors and coronavirus…
Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Cambridge Assessment, which operates one of the UK’s three big examination boards that administer most GCSE and A-level qualifications, says it approached ministers and the Department of Education two weeks before the publication of both sets of exam results to warn there were major problems in the way grades were being allocated. The exam regulator, Ofqual, responded that its enhanced appeal process would be sufficient to handle the few cases it expected would arise. In the event, serious…
Content Type: Examples
Thursday, February 25, 2021
The California bill AB2004 would direct the state to set up a blockchain-based system for immunity passports that would empower the California Department of Consumer Affairs to authorise health care providers to issue verifiable health credentials that could be used to grant or deny access to public places. The bill is scant on detail such as how long a credential should be valid, how it should be updated, or how it can be revoked following exposure. The use of phones for these credentials…
Content Type: Advocacy
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Dear Home Secretary,
We are writing to you to demand urgent reform of how asylum seekers across the country are placed under surveillance through the very same device that is supposed to provide basic subsistence support to them.
As you know the Aspen Card is a kind of debit card given to asylum seekers, on which about £39 is credited every week to cover their basic subsistence needs. But, reportedly, the Aspen card is also used to closely monitor asylum seekers and how they spend their money…
Content Type: Explainer
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
The UK Home Office provides basic subsistence support to people who are in the process of applying for asylum, as well as to those whose applications have been refused and are appealing their cases, in the form of an ‘Aspen Card’ - basically it’s a debit payment card, which can be used in any shop that accepts VISA debit payments. At the time of writing the programme is managed by corporate giant corporate giant Sodexo, but the administration of the payment system is soon going to go to a new…
Content Type: Call to Action
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
The ‘Aspen Card’ is a debit payment card given to UK asylum seekers by the Home Office. It provides basic subsistence, but the Home Office can also use Aspen Cards to track exactly what asylum seekers are buying, and where and when they’re making their purchases. But it doesn’t just stop at surveillance. The Home Office can cut off asylum seekers’ access to money if their spending patterns don’t adhere to invisible rules.PLEASE TAKE 2 MINUTES TO JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN TO STOP ASPEN CARD SURVEILLANCE…
Content Type: Video
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Performed by an actor, this video is based on the real life testimony, transcribed below, of a UK asylum seeker's experience of using their Home Office issued 'Aspen Card' debit payment card.
I arrived in the UK in 2009 and I have been living here for over ten years now. I have used both the Aspen Card and the card that was issued by the Home Office before that, the Azure Card. When I was released from immigration detention I was destitute because I am not allowed to work and that’s how…
Content Type: Video
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Performed by an actor, this video is based on the real life testimony, transcribed below, of a UK asylum seeker's experience of using their Home Office issued 'Aspen Card' debit payment card.
I came to the UK from a country in Africa because I was fleeing persecution for religious reasons. When I first came to England I was caught by the police, placed in detention before then being released into a hostel. When I was in the hostel I was given my Aspen Card, while I was applying for…
Content Type: Video
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Performed by an actor, this video is based on the real life testimony, transcribed below, of a UK asylum seeker's experience of using their Home Office issued 'Aspen Card' debit payment card.
I came to the UK to claim asylum from a country in the Middle East because of the political situation in my country. In order to get away, I walked from where I live all the way to the Turkish border by foot, crossing the mountains. I stayed in Turkey only a short while and then took two lorries…
Content Type: Long Read
Sunday, February 14, 2021
In May 2019, the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – the department in charge of welfare – published their two-part staff guide on conducting fraud investigations. Privacy International went through the 995 pages to understand how those investigations happen and how the DWP is surveilling benefits claimants suspected of fraud.
Anyone who has flipped through a tabloid will have seen articles exposing the so-called “benefits-cheats,” people who allegedly trick the benefits systems for…
Content Type: Long Read
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Back in 2019, we read through a 1000-page manual released by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) describing how they conduct investigations into alleged benefits fraud. While out in the open and accessible to anyone, the guide turned out to be a dizzying dive into a world where civil servants are asked to stand outside someone’s door to decide if they are indeed single or disabled and have to be reminded that living together as a married couple is not an offense. The guide – which…
Content Type: Video
Friday, February 5, 2021
Links
Find out more about general warrants and out case
Listen to our last podcast with Caroline - about a ruling in the European Union's top court that UK, French and Belgian mass surveillance regimes must respect privacy: Judgement Day
And make sure we can keep taking these fights to court: support.privacyinternational.org
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Content Type: Long Read
Thursday, February 4, 2021
What’s the ruling all about?
The Constitutional Court of South Africa in a historic judgment declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid. Furthermore, the Constitutional Court found that the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) 1) was deficient in failing to provide at least a post-notification procedure for subjects of interception; 2) failed to ensure the…
Content Type: People
Friday, January 29, 2021
Lucie is a Legal Officer at Privacy International working on our legal advocacy and litigation efforts, across our government and corporate exploitation programmes and our migration project.
Lucie was admitted as a lawyer in England and Wales in September 2020, and prior to joining PI specialised in IP/IT litigation at an international law firm. She previously worked in Internet governance for the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the London…
Content Type: Advocacy
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Esta carta también está disponible en inglés.
Estimados Sres. Zuckerberg y Pichai,
En los últimos años, ustedes han sido pioneros en la creación de importantes herramientas de transparencia para ayudar a los usuarios de su plataforma a entender, conocer y contextualizar la propaganda electoral a las cuales se ven expuestos. Estamos de acuerdo en que los procesos de verificación de anunciantes y los repositorios de anuncios son salvaguardas claves contra la manipulación y la desinformación en…
Content Type: Advocacy
Thursday, January 28, 2021
This letter is also available in Spanish.
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Pichai,
In the past few years, you have pioneered important transparency tools to help your platform users understand, learn about and contextualise the political advertising they see. We agree that advertiser verification processes and ad repositories are key safeguards against online manipulation and misinformation. However, we are saddened to observe that these benefits have not been equally distributed among your global…
Content Type: Case Study
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Your phone is the ideal profit tool for data brokers and advertisers: it's always in your pocket and can be used both as a means of collecting information and serving you ads based on that information. But how does this data collection happen through your apps?
Most, if not all, apps on our phones use Software Development Kits (SDKs). SDKs themselves are not trackers, but they are the means through which most tracking through mobile apps occurs. These kits are provided by third parties and…
Content Type: Case Study
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Behind their tecchie names, AddThis and ShareThis are simple services: they allow web-developers and less tech-savvy users to integrate social networking "share" buttons on their site. While they might also offer some additional services such as analytics, these tools gained traction mostly by providing an easy and free way to integrate Facebook, Twitter and other social networks share buttons. Anyone can use any of these service and in a few clicks be provided with a plugin for their…
Content Type: Long Read
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Now more than ever with a global pandemic happening, our lives are being shaped by our interaction with the digital world. Work meetings on Zoom followed by Skype with family before a quick run with your favourite running app and a Google search for your next meal: technologies and services offer us a lot and greatly improve our daily lives. But what's the real cost of these tools we rely on so much?
A lot of these companies, especially those offering free services, collect data about you. It…
Content Type: Report
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Privacy International has released a report summarising the result of its research into the databases and surveillance tools used by authorities across the UK’s borders, immigration, and citizenship system.
The report uses procurement, contractual, and other open-source data and aims to inform the work of civil society organisations and increase understanding of a vast yet highly opaque system upon which millions of people rely.
It also describes and maps how arms and tech companies, ranging…
Content Type: Video
Friday, January 22, 2021
In recent years, the use of online political campaigning has gained significant traction, with regulatory bodies often struggling to catch up. The unregulated use of political ads can pose threats to transparency, and all the more so when online platforms fail to play their part.
We at PI, together with ELSAM, are investigating the reach, effectiveness and impact of regulation by social media platforms and electoral authorities on online political advertising. Our research has shown that…
Content Type: Video
Friday, January 22, 2021
Nos últimos anos, o uso de campanhas políticas online ganhou força significativa, com os órgãos reguladores muitas vezes lutando para se atualizar. O uso não regulamentado da propaganda política pode representar ameaças à transparência, ainda mais quando as plataformas online deixam de cumprir a sua parte.
A PI, juntamente com o InternetLab, está investigando o alcance, a eficácia e o impacto da regulamentação por plataformas de mídia social e autoridades eleitorais na propaganda…
Content Type: Video
Friday, January 22, 2021
Links:
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Our report in Spanish
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