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Content Type: News & Analysis
15 November 2013
The following is an excerpt from a Comment originally published by The Guardian, written by Privacy International's Head of Advocacy, Carly Nyst:
From databases to mobile phone apps and SMS systems, GPS tracking and humanitarian drones to biometric registration, new technologies are rapidly becoming central to the delivery of humanitarian and development aid.
Refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict are having their irises scanned and their identity documents digitised…
Content Type: News & Analysis
13 October 2013
The following is an excerpt from a guest article which appeared on openDemocracy, written by Privacy International's Research Officer, Anna Crowe:
Humanitarian actors often forsake the right to privacy in favour of promoting programmes utilising phones to deliver services, either through a lack of understanding or wilful ignorance as to the risks involved.
It is clear that the massive uptake of mobile phones in developing countries has played a crucial role in the…
Content Type: Long Read
The era where we were in control of the data on our own computers has been replaced with devices containing sensors we cannot control, storing data we cannot access, in operating systems we cannot monitor, in environments where our rights are rendered meaningless. Soon the default will shift from us interacting directly with our devices to interacting with devices we have no control over and no knowledge that we are generating data. Below we outline 10 ways in which this exploitation and…
Content Type: News & Analysis
This post was written by Chair Emeritus of PI’s Board of Trustees, Anna Fielder.
The UK Data Protection Bill is currently making its way through the genteel debates of the House of Lords. We at Privacy International welcome its stated intent to provide a holistic regime for the protection of personal information and to set the “gold standard on data protection”. To make that promise a reality, one of the commitments in this government’s ‘statement of intent’ was to enhance…
Content Type: News & Analysis
This post was written by PI Technologist Ed Geraghty.
At the very heart of ThornSec’s design is that we assume our security will fail. There is nothing perfect on this earth (except kittens). The entire point is to fail well. For charities and NGOs that are fragile, poorly resourced, and often at risk, this is relatively novel thinking. We prepare for that with a strict adherence to good security practice.
It is exactly this element of novelty that makes us more open than your…
Content Type: News & Analysis
This post was written by PI Policy Officer Lucy Purdon.
In 1956, US Presidential hopeful Adlai Stevenson remarked that the hardest part of any political campaign is how to win without proving you are unworthy of winning. Political campaigning has always been a messy affair and now the online space is where elections are truly won and lost. Highly targeted campaign messages and adverts flood online searches and social media feeds. Click, share, repeat; this is what political engagement looks…
Content Type: News & Analysis
We work to collect the minimum amount of data that we need from you to do our jobs within the resources we have, and to protect and use that data in an ethical manner. We are expanding the ways we engage with our supporters, by rebuilding our tech services to ensure that we continue to live up to that commitment.
Here we explain what data we have access to, what we collect, and how we work to protect your data. This piece is more explanatory than our policy statement which is available here.…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Overview
CIPIT is currently investigating how the privacy of Kenyan citizens was affected by the use of biometric data during the just concluded 2017 general and repeat elections. The IEBC is mandated by law to register voters, verify their registration details and conduct elections. Accordingly, the IEBC is the custodian of the public voter register. There have been reports that individuals received SMS texts from candidates vying for various political seats during the campaign period of the…
Content Type: Long Read
The battle for Kenyan voters’ allegiance in the 2017 Presidential election was fought on social media and the blogosphere. Paid advertisements for two mysterious, anonymous sites in particular started to dominate Google searches for dozens of election-related terms in the months leading up to the vote. All linked back to either “The Real Raila”, a virulent attack campaign against presidential hopeful Raila Odinga, or Uhuru for Us, a site showcasing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s accomplishments. As…
Content Type: Long Read
Introduction
Why We Are So Concerned about Government Hacking for Surveillance
Scope of Our Safeguards
1. Legality
2. Security and Integrity of Systems
3. Necessity and Proportionality
4. Judicial Authorisation
5. Integrity of information
6. Notification
7. Destruction and Return of Data
8. Oversight and Transparency
9. Extraterritoriality
10. Effective Remedy
Commentary on each
1. Legality
2. Security and Integrity of Systems
3. Necessity and Proportionality
4.…
Content Type: Press release
A new investigation published today by Privacy International reveals the role of an American data-based digital advertising company in the highly divisive online re-election campaign of Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
In the run-up to Kenya's presidential election in August 2017, paid advertisements for two mysterious sites dominated Google searches for election-related terms and flooded Kenyans' social media feeds. All linked back to either 'The Real Raila', a virulent attack campaign…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Recently, a text from a local telecommunications company inquired whether its subscribers knew that they could now enroll their voice so they could access various services securely and conveniently. This added a further dynamic to the on-going debate in several quarters on the accelerated adoption of biometrics in Kenya. Does Kenya have the necessary framework in place to safeguard the privacy and security of its citizens? The reality is, innovators will not wait for an optimal…
Content Type: Press release
Press Release: New report shows how car rental companies are failing to protect drivers' information
A new report by Privacy International shows how car rental companies and car-share schemes are failing to protect drivers' personal information, such as their location, smart phone contents, and place of residence.
The report is here: https://privacyinternational.org/node/987
Key points
Privacy International (PI) rented a series of internet-connected cars and examined the information which was collected and retained on the rental cars' infotainment system*. Every car PI rented…
Content Type: News & Analysis
13 June 2016
"State capacity to conduct surveillance may depend on the extent to which business enterprises cooperate with or resist such surveillance” notes the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression in his report on the role of the private sector to respect human rights in the digital age. The Special Rapporteur will present its findings and recommendations to the Human Rights Council on Thursday.
It is no longer sufficient for companies to simply point the finger at…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Following the alarming evidence that EU-made electronic surveillance equipment is still being exported to authoritarian countries around the world, we strongly urge all EU member states and institutions to respect their human rights obligations and call on them to prioritise long overdue EU reforms.
We are extremely concerned that little has changed since civil society first recognised the need to modernise current EU rules governing the export of surveillance equipment as far back…
Content Type: News & Analysis
20 June 2016
Privacy International joins DRF and A19 in reiterating our serious concerns about the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill which is currently being discussed in the Senate in Pakistan. While we note that the Bill adopted by the National Assembly in April 2016 includes some improvements compared to the earlier version, the Bill as currently drafted introduces a series of new provisions that pose a grave risk to freedom of expression and privacy in Pakistan…
Content Type: News & Analysis
7 July 2016
It has been said is that we pay for free services with our personal data. Now, the Privacy Shield exponentially expands this truth and we are paying for the cost of U.S. political dysfunction combined with EU complacency with our privacy. More than four months after the first EU-US Privacy Shield was published on 29 February 2016, a new version has been leaked. Remarkably, it is expected to be adopted.
Four months, two opinions by group of EU data protection…
Content Type: News & Analysis
31 October 2016
This piece originally appeared in The Guardian here.
This government’s “neither confirm nor deny” mantra over the extent of its surveillance powers has been replaced with a new one: “Never apologise, never explain.” On Monday, the tribunal tasked with hearing complaints against our intelligence agencies found that for more than a decade our intelligence agencies had been unlawfully amassing, in bulk, vast amounts of our personal data.
The official public…
Content Type: News & Analysis
This comment by Privacy International Executive Director Gus Hosein ran in Ciper Chile on 19 May, 2014
The economic benefits of being included in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) with the US are remarkable. The ease of travel allows for the exchange of tourism between the countries, and other new economic opportunities through reduced friction caused by visa approval processes. Nonetheless, this program is often used as a mechanism to seek more data on the citizenry of participating…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The following article written by Carly Nyst, Privacy International's Legal Director, originially appeared on the Future Tense blog on Slate:
The news that the CIA is no longer using vaccination programs as a front for spying operations may come as a relief to many humanitarian workers. Yet their fears should not be completely assuaged, because the CIA’s activities—which undoubtedly threatened the safety of humanitarian workers and those they seek to help—pale in comparison to the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
17 June 2013
Below is an excerpt of an article that recently appeared in Melbourne, Australia's The Age, written by Carly Nyst, Head of International Advocacy at Privacy International:
"Mass surveillance of a country's citizens by its government can no longer be said to be the preserve of authoritarian and dictatorial states.
The publication last week by The Guardian of classified National Security Agency documents has exposed the extent of surveillance by the US government, throwing…
Content Type: News & Analysis
2nd March 2015
UPDATE: Since the original publication of this post in early February, over fifty additional national and international human rights organisations have joined us and called on all governments to support the creation of a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy.
This recent wave of support, bringing the total number up to 63, comes at a critical time. As the UN Human Rights Council begins its 28th session in Geneva today, the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
30 May 2017
These days it seems that no election can go by without fears of foul play, whether it is the hacking of a candidate or party’s e-mail or the spread of fake news and other misinformation to support or discredit a particular party or politician.
Often the finger is pointed at shady individuals or rogue governments , and invariably the accusations are met with flat denial. But the accusations have attracted significant attention from governments and companies alike, with reactions…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The Supreme Court has ruled that there is a fundamental right to privacy under the Indian constitution, establishing that “The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty”. This was a unanimous ruling by a bench of nine supreme court justices, who heard the case following a decision in 2015 over whether the controversial Aadhaar biometric identity scheme was constitutional.
The judgment is clear: privacy and human dignity are intrinsically…
Content Type: News & Analysis
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 private sphere. From the KGB to their modern incarnations, the autocracies in the region continue to rely on state surveillance and other entrenched means of political control to stay in power.
New technologies and…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The following appeared in the Daily Telegraph, and was written by Carly Nyst, Legal Director of Privacy International:
"Robert Hannigan, the new head of GCHQ, announced his arrival this week with a call for “greater co-operation” with security forces by tech companies. Hannigan’s article in the Financial Times illustrated vividly the destructive ideology that has driven the infiltration by the British and American intelligence agencies into every aspects of the digital realm – an…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Al Jazeera recently published an investigation into the shadowy trade of communications surveillance technologies. Their undercover reporter revealed four companies offering to illegally sell highly intrusive surveillance technologies to the governments of South Sudan and Iran, both of which are subject to extensive international sanctions. In the film, the four companies – two Italian, one Turkish and one Chinese – show themselves eager to employ workarounds, third parties, and shell…
Content Type: Press release
The release of a new report by Privacy International exposes Colombia's intelligence agencies' previously unknown history of developing communications surveillance capabilities outside of lawful authority.
The report “Shadow State: Surveillance law and order in Colombia” reveals, via previously unreleased documents, the Colombian police agencies' and intelligence services' long history developing surveillance systems. Rather than building a well-regulated system of surveillance after Colombia…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Privacy International has today written to government ministers, members of the opposition, and oversight bodies reaffirming its call for the UK government to reveal secret intelligence sharing arrangements with the United States.
The original UKUSA agreement — drafted shortly after World War II — allows UK and US agencies to share, by default, any raw intelligence, collection equipment, decryption techniques, and translated documents.
Current arrangements also allow US intelligence agencies…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The elections in our midst here, there, and everywhere are increasingly resulting in governments who introduce policies that result in leaps backwards for dignity, equality, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Whether it is Poland or the Philippines, governments are overriding essential safeguards.
This week Britain’s proposed surveillance legislation took another step toward normalising mass surveillance. The United States of America has long promoted mass surveillance and maintains its…