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Content Type: Long Read
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: News & Analysis
Today, 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.
The judgment is a confirmation of the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria’s powerful rejection of years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities against millions of people - irrespective of whether they reside in South Africa.
The case was brought by two applicants, the amaBhungane Centre…
Content Type: Video
Find out more about the Mental Health Foundation here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/
If you're worried about your mental health and want to try the NHS's mood self-assesment you can find it here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mood-self-assessment/
Read our work on mental health here: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/your-mental-health-sale
And you can support PI's work here: support.privacyinternational.org
You can listen and subscribe to the…
Content Type: Examples
PI filed a complaint against health website Doctissimo with the French data protection authority (CNIL) after our research found that Doctissimo engaged in programmatic advertising, and shared the results of online depression tests taken on its platform with third parties.
The complaint argues, among others, that Doctissimo had no lawful basis for the processing of personal data as the requirements for valid consent are not met, and that it does not comply with the Data Protection Principles…
Content Type: News & Analysis
In September 2019, PI published the report Your Mental Health for Sale. Our investigation looked into popular mental health websites and their data sharing practices.
Our findings suggest that, at the time of the research, most websites we looked at were using third party tracking for advertising purposes, sometimes relying on programmatic advertising technologies such as Real Time Bidding (RTB), sharing personal data with potentially thousands of actors. Some websites were also found sharing…
Content Type: Case Study
Over the past decade targeted advertisement has become exponentially more invasive. To enable targeted advertisement, massive amounts of data about individuals are collected, shared and processed often without their knowledge or consent. This information about us is then used to profile us and micro-target us to sell us products or influence our views.
This is a significant intrusion to our privacy inevitably affects our perogative not to reveal our thoughts; not to have our thoughts…
Content Type: Report
The changes discussed in this article are based on a second analysis performed in late November, 3 months after the original study Your Mental Health is for Sale and following the exact same methodology. All data collected can be found at the bottom of this page.
Change is possible
Back in September 2019 we published the report Your Mental Health is for Sale exposing how a majority of the top websites related to mental health in France, Germany and the UK share data for advertising purposes.…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Today, the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria in a historic decision declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid.
The judgment is a powerful rejection of years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities against millions of people - irrespective of whether they reside in South Africa.
The case was brought by two applicants, the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism and journalist Stephen…
Content Type: Long Read
A new study by Privacy International reveals how popular websites about depression in France, Germany and the UK share user data with advertisers, data brokers and large tech companies, while some depression test websites leak answers and test results with third parties. The findings raise serious concerns about compliance with European data protection and privacy laws.
This article is part of a research led by Privacy International on mental health websites and tracking. Read our…
Content Type: Report
The full report of Privacy International's study on how popular websites about depression in France, Germany and the UK share user data with advertisers, data brokers and large tech companies, while some depression test websites leak answers and test results with third parties. The findings raise serious concerns about compliance with European data protection and privacy laws.
Content Type: News & Analysis
This article is part of a research led by Privacy International on mental health websites and tracking. Read our full report.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 25 percent of the European population suffers from depression or anxiety each year, yet about 50% of major depressions remain untreated. This means that everyday thousands of people are looking for information about depression online. They take tests to find out how serious their symptoms are, they try to access…
Content Type: Long Read
It is common ground that bulk collection of content would be a deprivation of the right to privacy. That is an inexcusable or unjustifiable step too far. Repeatedly the Government whether in litigation or legislating, has emphasised that they are not taking content in bulk. Content is the forbidden ground.
This has resulted in the Government seeking to explain, for example, what parts of an email would constitute content and meta data. Within the Investigatory Powers Act it has led to the…
Content Type: Long Read
Six years after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents providing details about how states' mass surveillance programmes function, two states – the UK and South Africa – publicly admit using bulk interception capabilities.Both governments have been conducting bulk interception of internet traffic by tapping undersea fibre optic cables landing in the UK and South Africa respectively in secret for years.Both admissions came during and as a result of legal proceedings brought by Privacy…
Content Type: Advocacy
In October 2018, Privacy International submitted to the public consultation on the “Consolidated Guidance to Intelligence Officers and Service Personnel on the Detention and Interviewing of Detainees Overseas, and on the Passing and Receipt of Intelligence Relating to Detainees” (“Consolidated Guidance”) held by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (“IPCO”).Privacy International’s submission addresses the portions of the Consolidated Guidance on “the Passing and Receipt…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Data sharing among states is gaining prominence, particularly in light of the need to coordinate counter-terrorism activities across borders. The President of the European Commission put it in stark terms just a couple of months ago: “Terrorists know no borders. We cannot allow ourselves to become unwitting accomplices because of our inability to cooperate.” And several UN Security Council resolutions have emphasized the need for international cooperation in counter-terrorism.
Privacy…
Content Type: Press release
Privacy International (PI) has today sent a detailed report and list of questions to the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, following her admission that failures in the UK system governing intelligence sharing with international partners helped facilitate the detention, retention and “appalling treatment” of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar.
Yesterday, in a letter written to Belhaj and Boudchar and read out in the UK parliament, Prime Minister May made the extraordinary admission that “The…
Content Type: Advocacy
A new Privacy International report based on an international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries has found alarming weaknesses in the oversight arrangements that are supposed to govern the sharing of intelligence between state intelligence agencies, including in the UK. Privacy International urges governments to enact urgent reforms and improve public understanding about the scope of intelligence sharing and the safeguards and oversight currently in place.
Content Type: Long Read
A major new report published today by Privacy International has identified alarming weaknesses in the oversight arrangements that are supposed to govern the sharing of intelligence between state intelligence agencies.
'Secret Global Surveillance Networks: Intelligence Sharing Between Governments and the Need for Safeguards' is based on an international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries.
Previously undisclosed documents obtained by PI via litigation in the…
Content Type: Report
‘Secret Global Surveillance Networks’ is a major PI report, based on an unprecedented international collaborative investigation carried out by 40 NGOs in 42 countries.
Our research shows that, globally, the sharing of intelligence is alarmingly under-regulated, opening the door to human rights abuses. Intelligence sharing has evolved dramatically with the rise of new surveillance technologies, enabling governments to collect, store, and share vast troves of personal information, including data…
Content Type: News & Analysis
2017 begun with a progressive Human Rights Council resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age, noting that profiling of individuals may lead to discrimination. It ended with a Security Council resolution on counter-terrorism, calling for profiling of all air travellers and widespread collection and sharing of personal data, as well as introducing biometric technologies on a mass scale.
May this be another example of the tension between human rights laws and counter-terrorism…
Content Type: Advocacy
In this submission, Privacy International provides the Committee with their observations to the written replies of the Pakistani government and with additional, up to date information to that contained in the brieing submitted to the Committee in advance of the adoption of the list of issues in 2016.
Content Type: News & Analysis
For further information on timeline and case history, read this briefing.
Arguments
The argument were based on the written submissions of the parties. The oral statements summarised key points in these submissions.
The submissions can be found on PI’s website under Legal Action. In terms of today’s proceedings (these are now available through webcast)
Counsel for the UK Government, James Eadie QC started off proceedings, his opening arguments were: 1) The issues are of…
Content Type: Long Read
This piece was written by Ashley Gorski, who is an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, and PI legal officer Scarlet Kim and originally appeared in The Guardian here.
In recent weeks, the Hollywood film about Edward Snowden and the movement to pardon the NSA whistleblower have renewed worldwide attention on the scope and substance of government surveillance programs. In the United States, however, the debate has often been a narrow one, focused on the…
Content Type: Long Read
This week, Privacy International, together with nine other international human rights NGOs, filed submissions with the European Court of Human Rights. Our case challenges the UK government’s bulk interception of internet traffic transiting fiber optic cables landing in the UK and its access to information similarly intercepted in bulk by the US government, which were revealed by the Snowden disclosures. To accompany our filing, we have produced two infographics to illustrate the…
Content Type: 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, including Privacy International, the Court admitted that in its 22nd June 2015 judgment it wrongly failed to declare that Amnesty International had been subject to unlawful surveillance…
Content Type: Long Read
Few revelations have been been as troubling for the right to privacy as uncovering the scope of the Five Eyes alliance. The intelligence club made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States has integrated its collection efforts, staff, bases, and analysis programs. Yet the legal rulebook governing how the agencies ensure the most comprehensive joint surveillance effort in the history of mankind remains secret.
The little that is known suggests a…
Content Type: News & Analysis
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 judgement represents a monumental leap forward in efforts to make intelligence agencies such as GCHQ and NSA accountable to the millions of individuals whose privacy they have violated.
The…
Content Type: Long Read
As Privacy International celebrates Friday's victory against Britain’s security services - the first such victory this century - we cannot help but feel the success is bittersweet.
After all, we may have convinced the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that GCHQ was acting unlawfully in accessing NSA databases filled with billions of emails and messages, but with a few technical adjustments the intelligence services have managed to insure themselves against any further challenge, at least in…
Content Type: Long Read
Modern day government surveillance is based on the simple concept of “more is more” and “bigger is better”. More emails, more text messages, more phone calls, more screenshots from Skype calls. The bigger the haystack, the more needles we can find.
Thanks to Edward Snowden, we know that this fundamental idea drives intelligence agencies like the NSA and GCHQ - the desire to collect it all, to generate gigantic haystacks through which to trawl. In the almost two years since the first of Snowden…