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Content Type: Examples
Article extract:
"One of the nation's largest commercial distributors of voter data sold voter-registration lists featuring detailed personal information without verifying the identity or intent of buyers.
Aristotle International used a website to sell the lists, which contain details about registered voters from nearly every state. The data includes birth dates, home addresses, phone numbers, race, income levels, ethnic backgrounds and, in some cases, religious affiliations.
Although voter-…
Content Type: Examples
Article extract:
"Knowing your business is big business for Aristotle Inc., whose Orwellian database of voter records has been an essential campaign tool for every president since Ronald Reagan. As the 2008 race heats up, the company’s shadowy founder, John Aristotle Phillips, unveils his most powerful personal-space invader yet."
Link: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/12/aristotle200712
Author: James Verini
Publication: Vanity Fair
Publication date: 12 December 2007
Content Type: Examples
Article extract:
"Amid concerns about the rampant spread of “fake news”— and fearful memories of scores of deaths during the 2007 election— it was another seismic development in a fraught election. Last weekend, staffers at Aristotle, an American data firm working for the opposition party, were deported from the country after what a spokesperson described as an aggressive detention..."
"...Last weekend, a group of unidentified men in black hoodies arrived at the Nairobi apartment of John…
Content Type: Video
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 InternetLab, are investigating the reach, effectiveness and impact of regulation by social media platforms and electoral authorities on online political advertising. Our research has…
Content Type: Long Read
Among the many challenges of 2020, the impact on elections around the world kept us all on the edge of our seats. 75 countries postponed national and local elections due to Covid 19. Of the elections that went ahead, we saw Covid safe measures at polling stations (South Korea led the way forward in April) an increase in postal voting (who can forget the USA, but also Poland) and political parties in Uganda conducting "virtual" campaigns as mass rallies and in person campaign meetings were…
Content Type: Long Read
Political parties depend on data to drive their campaigns, from deciding where to hold rallies, which campaign messages to focus on in which area, and how to target supporters, undecided voters and non-supporters, including with ads on social media. Political parties increasingly hire private companies to do the bulk of this work, and our primary concern is how these companies use personal data to “profile” people and drive election campaigning.
As part of PI’s programme of work on Defending…
Content Type: Long Read
This report is available in English.
La mayoría de los documentos nacionales de identidad y demás documentos emitidos por autoridades estatales incluyen un marcador de género. Estos marcadores suelen recibir el nombre de “marcador de sexo” aunque este término no sea preciso. La presencia de dichos marcadores, especialmente en los certificados de nacimiento, promueve el énfasis de nuestra sociedad en el género como criterio de asignación de identidades, roles y responsabilidades sociales. Al…
Content Type: Long Read
Este informe está disponible en español.
Most national ID or identifying documents include a gender marker. This is often known as a 'sex marker,' even though the term is inaccurate. The presence of such markers, especially on birth certificates, contribute to our society’s emphasis on gender as a criterion for assigning identities, roles and responsibilities within society. With gender being such a determining and dominant identifier, it puts it at the centre of so many arrays of our…
Content Type: Press release
Privacy International announces the launch of two reports as part of its work on Defending Democracy and Dissent.
The report Online Political Ads: A study of inequality in transparency standards builds on our 2019 research findings and delves into the adverse impacts of non-existent or limited transparency on democracy based on two case-studies developed by our partners InternetLab and ELSAM.
The report, Micro-Targeting in Political Campaigns,…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Over the past years, there has been much attention paid to political advertising transparency on online platforms. Growing internet penetration and the rising popularity of social media have made social media platforms a key battlefield for political actors in the fight for votes, where political ads have proved themselves to be a popular weapon. This means online transparency towards voters has become more imperative than ever.
And yet, social media platforms’ regulation of political ads…
Content Type: News & Analysis
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission and various states attorneys general have opened investigations against alleged anti-competitive practices of Facebook and Google, while demands for stronger regulation both in anti-trust and privacy laws are growing. The EU has unveiled its twin proposed legislation, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, aimed at increasing the responsibilities of big platforms and seeking to address the power imbalance they have over other businesses and…
Content Type: Video
This podcast was recorded before the US Federal Trade Commission told a company called 'Ever' to delete any facial recognition algorithms they developed without consent
Links:
The original article
Info on how to do your own Data Subject Access Request
And the template from the ICO
Info on how to request your data be deleted
Find more from Ann Cavoukian
Find out more about the ACLU's legal challenge in Illinois
Find out more about Robert Julian-Borchack William's case…
Content Type: Report
This paper examines the various legal frameworks governing micro-targeting in political campaigns in six states: Canada, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. It aims to assess national practices as well as point out gaps in their respective frameworks. The paper commences by examining how micro-targeting is defined and thereafter examines the legal provisions applicable to micro-targeting activities.
To do this in an accessible way, the paper follows and analyses the series of activities…
Content Type: Examples
An immigration detention centre has been temporarily closed after several members of staff tested positive for coronavirus. The Home Office said Brook House, near Gatwick airport in West Sussex, has been shut for 10 days. It said a “very small number” of detainees had been moved to Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow.
Everyone being held at detention centres is being seen by a nurse and offered a Covid test, while face masks are provided; these are mandatory for all staff, it…
Content Type: Video
Links!
If you're worried about your devices and a controlling partner, we have some tips for you; you can also find out more at women's aid's website.
Find out more about our court victory.
Listen to Dr David Crepaz-Keay from the Mental health Foundation talk about mental health and tech
Tom on immunity passports
Lucy on marketing and maternity and low cost tech
Eva and smart cities
And support PI's work at support.privacyinternational.org
You can listen and subscribe to the…
Content Type: Long Read
On 8 January 2021, the UK High Court issued a judgment in the case of Privacy International v. Investigatory Powers Tribunal. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) appeared as interested parties to the case.
After our initial reaction, below we answer some of the main questions relating to the case.
NOTE: This post reflects our initial reaction to the judgment and may be updated.
What’s the ruling all about?
In…
Content Type: Frequently Asked Questions
On 8 January 2021, the UK High Court issued a judgment in the case of Privacy International v. Investigatory Powers Tribunal. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) appeared as interested parties to the case.
After our initial reaction, below we answer some of the main questions relating to the case.
NOTE: This post reflects our initial reaction to the judgment and may be updated.
Content Type: News & Analysis
Today, the UK High Court has quashed a decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) and held that section 5 of the Intelligence Services Act (ISA) 1994 does not permit the issue of general warrants to authorise property interference and certain forms of computer hacking.
The Court referred to cases dating back to the 18th century, which demonstrate the common law’s insistence that the Government cannot search private premises without lawful authority even in the national security…
Content Type: Press release
Today, the UK High Court has quashed a decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), and ruled that section 5 of the Intelligence Services Act (ISA) 1994 does not permit the issuing of general warrants to authorise property interference and certain forms of computer hacking.
The Court referred to cases dating back to the 18th century, which demonstrate the common law’s insistence that the Government cannot search private premises without lawful authority even in the context of national…
Content Type: Video
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And support PI's work here: support.privacyinternational.org
Content Type: Examples
Undocumented immigrants in Nebraska will not be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines, Governor Pete Ricketts announced Monday. Ricketts, the son of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, was asked at a press conference if undocumented persons would be included when vaccines become available to meatpacking plant workers.
'Illegal immigrants are not permitted to work in those facilities, so I don't think that will be a problem,' the governor replied without further explanation.
In…
Content Type: Examples
A Sudanese man who had been seeking asylum in Ireland was deported to London just days before the UK capital went into the highest levels of COVID-related restrictions. The man, who is in his twenties, was deported last Thursday despite Irish government assurances to halt such removals during the pandemic. Due to travel restrictions currently in place, he is unable to return.
He is also now homeless and without support as London shuts down under Tier 4 lockdown restrictions, in the face of a…
Content Type: Examples
The Home Office is pushing ahead with charter flights despite the UK’s new lockdown and soaring levels of coronavirus, in what campaigners say shows “contempt” for both deportees and the wider public.
Boris Johnson announced new, stricter coronavirus measures on Monday in an effort to slow the spread of the new, more transmissible variant of the virus, saying “everyone should now stay at home and only leave the house where absolutely necessary”.
Under the new rules, people are told that they…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Today, the European Commission has concluded its Phase II in-depth review of the proposed acquisition of the health and fitness tracker Fitbit by Google, deciding that the merger can go through. While we welcome the commitments put forward by Google to mitigate some risks of compromising individuals' rights and competition, PI considers the effects of this merger will further strengthen Google's capacity to exploit our data.
On 15 June 2020, Google formally notified the European Commission of…
Content Type: Long Read
As we see Covid-19 vaccination programmes beginning around the world, for the first time since the start of the pandemic there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel as the fruition of truly unrivalled global scientific efforts has given us hope of saving lives, reopening our societies, and going back to “normal”.
This great moment of hope must not be seen opportunistically as yet another data grab. The deployment of vaccines, and in particular any “immunity passport” or certificate…
Content Type: Examples
Civil society organisations Civil Liberties union for Europe, Open Rights Group and Panoptykon Foundation have filed complaints against Google and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) member companies in Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Romania.
The complaints address privacy abuses arising from real-time bidding processing, and call on data protection authorities to work together in investigation the real-time bidding industry.
Content Type: Advocacy
An interoperability requirement for “gatekeeper” firms would:
give a fair chance for competition on the merits of new services.
contribute to meeting the three key objectives of the Commission’s February 2020 Digital Future Communication: ensuring technology works for people; a fair and competitive economy and an open, democratic and sustainable society.
As the letter notes, "major digital competition reviews over the last two years [...] have recommended interoperability requirements.…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Today, the CNIL announced fines of €100 million and €35 million for Gooogle and Amazon, respectively, for breaches of the French Data Protection Act.
The fines resulted from two separate investigations carried out by CNIL in relation to the use of cookies on the French websites of Google and Amazon.
The decision against Google
While it seems to be broadly stated that the CNIL fined Google €100 million, a more accurate statement is that the CNIL fined Google LLC (the parent company of Google’…