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Content Type: Case Study
Centro Prodh es una asociación sin fines de lucro que promueve los derechos humanos, y que ha acompañado algunos de los casos más emblemáticos en México. Quizá a raíz del impacto positivo de su trabajo, el centro se ha visto enfrentado a riesgos serios de vigilancia. En su declaración de fin de misión después de una visita a México, el anterior relator especial de la ONU sobre la situación de los defensores de derechos humanos, expresó preocupación en relación al Centro…
Content Type: Report
One name in tech has become embroiled in controversy: Palantir, a big-data analytics outfit.
Palantir weren’t that well known in the UK until the Covid-19 pandemic, when they were thrust into the national spotlight after the UK Government granted them access to reportedly unprecedented quantities of NHS patient data for processing and analysis in response to the novel Coronavirus.
Palantir isn’t just working with the NHS, yet despite their extensive work with the government could potentially…
Content Type: Long Read
Privacy and security are both essential to protecting individuals, including their autonomy and dignity. Undermining privacy undermines the security of individuals, their devices and the broader infrastructure. People need privacy to freely secure themselves, their information, and fully enjoy other rights. However, a growing number of governments around the world are embracing hacking to facilitate their surveillance activities.
As a form of government surveillance, hacking presents…
Content Type: Examples
After a two year investigation into credit referencing agencies (CRAs) Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - initiated in part pursuant to a complaint filed by PI against Equifax and Experian in November 2018 - the ICO has published a report finding "widespread and systemic data protection failings" in the data broking sector. Pursuant to its investigation, the ICO issued an enforcement notice against Experian, requesting the company to achieve compliance with data…
Content Type: Frequently Asked Questions
On 27 October 2020, the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued a report into three credit reference agencies (CRAs) - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - which also operate as data brokers for direct marketing purposes.
After our initial reaction, below we answer some of the main questions regarding this report.
Content Type: News & Analysis
Privacy International (PI) welcomes today's report from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) into three credit reference agencies (CRAs) which also operate as data brokers for direct marketing purposes. As a result, the ICO has ordered the credit reference agency Experian to make fundamental changes to how it handles people's personal data within its offline direct marketing services.
It is a long overdue enforcement action against Experian.…
Content Type: Video
Dr. Andrea Swartzendruber is the principal investigator for the Pregnancy Resource Center Evaluation at Emory University's Center for Reproductive Health Research in the Southeast. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Georgia College of Public Health and an adjunct professor at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. She has recently published and presented research findings on pregnancy resource centers (also known…
Content Type: Case Study
Sebastián Gómez is a land rights defender. He is based in Colombia.
Qn: Please briefly describe your work and the issues/topics you work on.
I am researcher for an organisation working on topics related to the defense of the territory and environmental protection. We operate in different regions, including those which have been historically subjected to violence due to the armed conflict and which are now experiencing a spike in a range of environmental conflicts. Our work consists of…
Content Type: Case Study
amaBhungane is an independent, non-profit newsroom based in South Africa. amaBhungane plays a key role in exposing corruption, promoting transparency and accountability at all levels of government. In recent years, amaBhungane has been at the forefront of privacy litigation in amaBhungane Centre and Sole Stephen v. Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and others, a challenge to South Africa’s expansive surveillance laws.
Qn: Please briefly describe your work and the issues/…
Content Type: Case Study
Ananda Badudu is an activist, musician and former journalist. In September 2019, he started a crowdfunding campaign page to support student protesters taking part in demonstrations against the Indonesian House of Representatives.
Qn: Please briefly describe your work and the issues/topics you work on.
I’ve been full-time musician for 2 years. Before that I was a journalist from 2010 to 2016, first at Tempo, then at Vice. In late September 2019, I took part in a crowd-funding campaign…
Content Type: Case Study
Centro Prodh is a non-profit civil association which promotes human rights, and has been involved in some of the most emblematic cases in Mexico. The impact of their work is only matched by the severity of surveillance threats they face. In his end-of-mission statement after a visit to Mexico, the former Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders expressed specific concern about Centro Prodh in light of its being targeted for its work on enforced disappearances,…
Content Type: Video
Find out more:
About PI's work on smart cities here: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/smart-cities
About Ellie's work here: https://www.urbaninnovationandpolicy.net/ellie-cosgrave
About Lakshmi's work here: https://aru.ac.uk/people/lakshmi-priya-rajendran
And Rob's work here: http://www.kitchin.org/
And you can support PI's work here: support.privacyinternational.org
Content Type: Examples
In early August, when the UK government announced it was purchasing 90-minute saliva-based COVID-19 tests called LamPORE and 5,000 lab-free machines to process them, supplied by DNANudge, clinical researchers were dismayed to find that there is no publicly available data about the accuracy or performance of these tests. While the tests could be a game-changer by offering rapid, on-the-spot testing with less discomfort for patients, no scientific research was offered to validate the tests, not…
Content Type: Examples
Questions have been raised about an irregular process by which the Trump administration awarded a $10.2 million dollar six-month contract to Pittsburgh-based TeleTracking Technologies. TeleTracking has traditionally sold software to help hospitals track patient status; under the new contract it is collecting key data about COVID-19 from US hospitals, bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to which such data is normally reported. The contract was awarded by the Department of…
Content Type: Examples
A growing number of companies - for example, San Mateo start-up Camio and AI startup Actuate, which uses machine learning to identify objects and events in surveillance footage - are repositioning themselves as providers of AI software that can track workplace compliance with covid safety rules such as social distancing and wearing masks. Amazon developed its own social distancing tracking technology for internal use in its warehouses and other buildings, and is offering it as a free tool to…
Content Type: Examples
Professional sports teams are considering adopting facial recognition admissions systems to make stadiums as touchless for fans as possible as part of efforts to provide a safe environment during the pandemic. Both the Los Angeles Football Club and the New York Mets are trying the Clear app, made by Alclear, and Major League Baseball is considering it. At the LAFC, fans will use the app to take and upload a selfie to their accounts and link it to their Ticketmaster profiles; on entry to the…
Content Type: Examples
The algorithm and mathematical model used to predict students’ grades by the International Baccalaureate programme, which was forced to cancel exams because of the pandemic, incorporated three elements: coursework, teachers’ predictions of their students’ exam grades, and “school context”, which was based on historical teacher grade predictions (which universities use for provisional acceptances) and the school’s historical performance on each subject’s coursework. The result was to penalise…
Content Type: Examples
As part of efforts to make returning to campus safer, US universities are considering or implementing mandates requiring students to install exposure notification apps, quarantine enforcement programs, and other unproven new technologies, risking exacerbating existing inequalities in access to both technology and education. In some cases, such as Indiana University, UMass Amherst, and the University of New Hampshire, universities are requiring students to make a blanket commitment to install…
Content Type: Examples
A preliminary study finds that facial recognition algorithms struggle to identify people wearing masks. The study tested 89 commercial facial recognition algorithms, and the best had error rates between 5% and 50% in matching unmasked photos with photos of the same person wearing a digitally-applied mask. Masks both lowered the algorithms’ accuracy rates and raised the number of failures to process. The more of the nose is covered by the mask the lower the algorithm’s accuracy; however, error…