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Content Type: Report
In this new briefing, we identify the most significant concerns on the UN Countering Terrorist Travel Programme (CTTP), and put forward a range of recommendations to mitigate some of the human rights risks associated with the surveillance of travellers. We based our briefing on publicly available information and our own research, outlining the purposes and activities of this UN programme. We shared a draft of this briefing with the United Nations Office of Counter- Terrorism (OCT), which…
Content Type: Long Read
In this new briefing, we identify the most significant concerns on the UN Countering Terrorist Travel Programme (CTTP), and put forward a range of recommendations to mitigate some of the human rights risks associated with the surveillance of travellers. We based our briefing on publicly available information and our own research, outlining the purposes and activities of this UN programme. We shared a draft of this briefing with the United Nations Office of Counter- Terrorism (OCT), which…
Content Type: Advocacy
On the 13 November 2024 a debate took place in the UK parliament on the police’s use of facial recognition technology (FRT) for the first time, despite facial recognition being used as far back as 2017.The issue was debated by 13 members of parliament (MPs) representative of a range of political parties, as well as the Minister for Fire, Policing and Crime Prevention. Throughout the debate several MPs raised concerns around privacy, surveillance, issues of facial recognition disproportionately…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The UK government has published a £20 million procurement for tech companies to provide live facial recognition technology (FRT) to police forces across the UK.Through BlueLight Commercial, a non-profit commercial consortium representing police and other emergency services, the government has issued a tender notice to establish a national multi-supplier framework for the provision of live FRT. The Scope of the framework is for “real-time deployment of facial recognition technology, which…
Content Type: Advocacy
In the wake of Privacy International’s (PI) campaign against the unfettered use of Facial Recognition Technology in the UK, MPs gave inadequate responses to concerns raised by members of the public about the roll-out of this pernicious mass-surveillance technology in public spaces. Their responses also sidestep calls on them to take action.The UK is sleepwalking towards the end of privacy in public. The spread of insidious Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) in public spaces across the country…
Content Type: Long Read
IntroductionIn early October this year, Google announced its AI Overviews would now have ads. AI companies have been exploring ways to monetise their AI tools to compensate for their eye watering costs, and advertising seems to be a part of many of these plans. Microsoft have even rolled out an entire Advertising API for its AI chat tools.As AI becomes a focal point of consumer tech, the next host of the AdTech expansion regime could well be the most popular of these AI tools: AI chatbots.…
Content Type: Advocacy
The rapid expansion of educational technologies (EdTech) has introduced serious concerns about human rights protection in educational spaces. This briefing explores the impact of facial recognition technology (FRT) and heightened surveillance in these settings, highlighting many complex and multifaceted issues that demand careful consideration from a human rights perspective. From the erosion of privacy and the securitisation of educational spaces - that undermines the learning and growth…
Content Type: Video
Please note, while we normally embed a peertube video for privacy reasons we are currently experiencing technical issues, so the above is a YouTube video, which we will replace as soon as we can.We're joined by Rosemary Kayess - Vice Chair of the UN Committee on the Convention of the Rights for Persons with Disabilities, and the Disability Discrimination commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Marc Workman - CEO of the World Blind Union (WBU), and Heba Hagrass - UN Special…
Content Type: Report
With this report, we shed light on the due process implications of the blanket and indiscriminate surveillance of protesters, activists, and human rights defenders participating in protests. We demonstrate that information gathered through the surveillance of protests is being used in criminal proceedings against activists, protesters, and human rights defenders. We also also show that when this information is being admitted as evidence in criminal proceedings it undermines the right to fair…
Content Type: External content
Why this campaign?From years spent investigating, documenting and exposing the impact of algorithmic management and workplace surveillance on workers, from drivers to content creators to data labellers, it is clear that lack of access to information and understandability of the systems than manage them negatively impact workers affected.In light of the poor track records of the major companies on the topic, we decided to produce detailed recommendations for actors implementing algorithmic…
Content Type: External content
What if your boss was an algorithm? What would you do if your employer suddenly fired you or reduced your pay without telling you why? And without so much as giving you a reason when you ask why this happened?Unfortunately, this is the reality for the many millions of gig workers worldwide driving or delivering for platforms like Uber, Deliveroo, Wolt, Just Eat, etc.One of the main reasons for this is their heavy reliance on algorithms to manage workers. From hiring to firing to dynamically…
Content Type: Advocacy
In August 2024 the UK College of Policing (CoP) announced they were consulting on new guidance for data ethics and data driven technologies in policing. As part of the consultation the College asked for feedback on two new authorised professional practices (APP) on data ethics and data-driven technologies. PI provided a response in writing to the CoP on their APP on data ethics and data-driven technologies only.In our response we highlighted that we are aware that UK police forces are using a…
Content Type: Long Read
Increasingly, EdTech systems are less about teaching than about monitoring, security and ‘safety’ – although those aims are often mixed with wider educational claims.For instance, one company offering “high quality surveillance systems and CCTV for schools including sophisticated infra-red cameras which record in the darkest areas” claimed that these both deter “bad or antisocial behaviour from pupils, parents and visitors” and improve the concentration, productivity and attainment of the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Also available in English.A Relatora Especial da ONU sobre o Direito à Educação publicou seu relatório sobre liberdade acadêmica - que, entre outras coisas, recomenda que os Estados banam as tecnologias de reconhecimento facial das instituições educacionais.O sistema educacional do Brasil, que se baseia no valor fundamental “o melhor interesse da criança” é um dos piores infratores do mundo. Até o momento, 1.667 escolas só no estado do Paraná adotaram uma tecnologia que, segundo o principal…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Também disponível em portuguêsThe UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education published her report on academic freedom, which recommends that states ban facial recognition technologies from educational institutions.Brazil’s educational system - which is built on the fundamental value: the best interest of the child, is one of the world’s worst offenders. So far 1,667 schools in the state of Paraná alone have adopted a technology that the UN’s leading expert believes threatens student’s…
Content Type: Long Read
IntroductionHarnessing new digital technology to improve people’s health is now commonplace across the world. Countries and international organisations alike are devising digital health strategies and looking to emerging technology to help solve tricky problems within healthcare. At the same time, more and more start-ups and established tech companies are bringing out new, and at times innovative, digital tools aimed at health and wellbeing.
Content Type: External content
This could be done by providing API access to a sandboxed version of the system, making open source the key algorithms used on the platform or provide access to anonymised/synthetic data accurately reflecting the behaviour of the system. Companies should also consider sharing their source code and training datasets directly to further improve transparency and accountability.While public access would be a gold standard, a more limited approach may be appropriate, in which only worker…
Content Type: External content
A reason for the decision should always be made available to the worker, including with reference to the inputs, including worker personal data, and parameters that were decisive to the outcome or that, if changed, would have resulted in a different outcome. Sources of particular parameters and inputs must also be provided and explained – for example in the event that a decision is based on a customer feedback rating. Reasons given for a particular decision must be specific and personalised…
Content Type: Long Read
IntroductionWith the ongoing expansion of GPS tagging under the UK Home Office's electronic monitoring programme, it has increasingly deployed non-fitted devices (NFDs) that track a person's GPS location and request frequent biometric verification in the form of fingerprint scans.The NFDs deployed by the UK Home Office are small handheld devices with a fingerprint scanner that record a person's location 24/7 (referred to as their trail data). They alert the person at random intervals throughout…
Content Type: Long Read
Education is a fundamental human right outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 26), which states that everyone has the right to education. Schools play a core role in the education of children, but it’s also in schools that children are encouraged to learn to work with others, and to develop their own identities and emotional skills. The education process doesn’t stop there, it continues as children grow and make their way through different higher educational spaces such…
Content Type: Long Read
1. What is the issue?Governments and international organisations are developing and accessing databases to pursue a range of vague and ever-expanding aims, from countering terrorism and investigating crimes to border management and migration control.These databases hold personal, including biometric, data of millions if not billions of people, and such data is processed by technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), to surveil, profile, predict future behaviour, and ultimately make…
Content Type: Video
Links for description: - Matrix- Element- Telegram's encryption- Blah- Anatel Brazil Whatsapp arrest- European commission 42 point going dark plan- Clipper chip: Listen to our podcast!- Online Safety Act- Liberty on the Online Safety Act- Adam Langley- More about Pond.org- 'We kill people based on metadata'- PI and ICRC report- Matrix P2P tracker- Alec Muffett v Matthew Hodgson- PI's take on the Digital Markets Act- Apple enable RCS- Chat Control- Cyber Resilience Act
Content Type: Long Read
Elections and political campaigns are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. These technologies rely on collecting, storing, and analysing personal information to operate. They have enabled the proliferation of tailor-made political advertising. The recent proliferation of AI technologies is enabling ever more sophisticated content creation and manipulation in the context of elections.In parallel, governments are continuing to invest in digital technologies for the running of elections…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Artificial intelligence decision making systems have in recent years become a fixture of immigration enforcement and border control. This is despite the clear and proven harmful impacts they often have on individuals going through the immigration system. More widely, the harms of automated decision making have been increasingly there for all to see: from systems that encode bias and discrimination, as happened in the case of an algorithm used to detect benefit fraud in the Netherlands, to…
Content Type: News & Analysis
We’ve published a new tech explainer on election technologies in Kenya. The explainer takes a deep dive into the technologies employed to manage and administer the election process in Kenya, such as biometric voter registration (BVR), voter identification, results transmission, and candidate management systems.Electoral processes - along with elections themselves - are one of the largest government data-gathering exercises undertaken, making them susceptible to data exploitation and privacy…
Content Type: Examples
Ontario allocates $30 million to install new security technologies and vape detectors, expanding their surveillance apparatus whilst contributing to an overall cut in funding per student. Some of the vape detectors installed in Canadian schools include noise detectors, however there is a lack of transparency in how data is collected or used, and evidence for their efficacy in keeping students safe is lacking. Link to article: https://theconversation.com/vaping-in-schools-ontarios-30-…