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Tara is a Legal Officer at Privacy International. She works on legal advocacy and supports PI’s litigation efforts in the areas of surveillance, the authoritarian use of technology and social and economic justice. Tara was admitted as an attorney in South Africa in March 2018, and holds a Master of Laws (LLM), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and undergraduate degrees in law and political science. Before joining PI, Tara worked as a human rights attorney in South Africa, specialising in information…
Content Type: Advocacy
What's happening with digital ID in Kenya?In 2018, the Kenyan government tried to introduce the Huduma Namba project. Among other things, the project established the National Identity Integrated Management System (NIIMS); a centralised database purposed to consolidate all government records about an individual into a single ID system. In April 2019, PI submitted an expert affidavit challenging the NIIMS. In 2020, the High Court of Kenya acknowledged several key issues raised by PI in its…
Content Type: Long Read
In 2024, Privacy International (PI) continued to produce real change by challenging governments and corporations that use data and technology to exploit us.Since the beginning of the year, we’ve achieved some wins and would like to share the most recent ones with you.Creating change is hard, and takes time. We have to uncover problems, draw attention to them, and pressure for change. In the latest quarter, we’ve been able to compel disclosure on algorithms used in immigration cases, and find…
Content Type: Advocacy
Generative AI models cannot rely on untested technology to uphold people's rightsThe development of generative AI has been dependent on secretive scraping and processing of publicly available data, including personal data. However, AI companies have to date had an unacceptably poor approach towards transparency and have sought to rely on unproven ways to fulfill people's rights, such as to access, rectify, and request deletion of their dataOur view is that the ICO should adopt a stronger…
Content Type: Advocacy
At PI we have been observing with concern the rapid expansion of technologies in educational settings, which has included a wide array of tools that allow the surveillance of students and academic staff, to the detriment of their privacy and academic freedom. We consider this upcoming report as an essential platform to examine the intricate interplay between academic freedom, freedom of expression, and surveillance conducted by both public and private entities through Education…
Content Type: Advocacy
While PI recognises the threats posed by cybercrime, PI reiterates the need both for a narrow scope for the proposed Convention, focusing solely on core cyber-dependent crimes, as well as for effective safeguards throughout the entire treaty to ensure human rights are respected and protected, especially in the areas of privacy and freedom of expression. Throughout the negotiations most of proposals by Member States and other stakeholders aimed at restricting the scope of the treaty and…
Content Type: Video
Links - Read more about PI's work on encryption- Matt Blaze and crypto.com; you can now find Matt at mattblaze.org - More about ITAR and the export of cryptography- More about France's ban on encryption ending in this 1999 article from the Register- More about the Data Encryption Standard - Find out more about the Clipper Chip or take a look at this NY Times article from 1994 (paywalled)- Matt Blaze's flaw in the Clipper Chip- NSA Data Center and NSA holding data- An…
Content Type: Advocacy
On 18 October 2023, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR or Court) issued a historic judgment declaring the Republic of Colombia internationally responsible for human rights violations against several members of the human rights non-profit Colectivo de Abogados y Abogadas José Alvear Restrepo (CAJAR)and their relatives. This groundbreaking decision marks the first acknowledgment within the inter-American context of a state’s international responsibility for violating the right to…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Is the AI hype fading? Consumer products with AI assistant are disappointing across the board, Tech CEOs are struggling to give examples of use cases to justify spending billions into Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and models training. Meanwhile, data protection concerns are still a far cry from having been addressed.
Yet, the believers remain. OpenAI's presentation of ChatGPT was reminiscent of the movie Her (with Scarlett Johannsen's voice even being replicated a la the movie), Google…
Content Type: Examples
L3Harris is contracted by the U.S. Space Force to develop space surveillance information though a programme known as MOSSAIC (the Maintenance Of Space Situational Awareness Integrated Capabilities). The program is said to provide space surveillance information for military, civil and commercial users.https://www.satellitetoday.com/government-military/2024/04/19/us-space-force-awards-l3harris-contract-option-for-space-surveillance-program/Publication: ViaSatelliteWriter: Rachel Jewett
Content Type: Examples
Israel based company, High Lander, is providing demos of its system, called Orion, to U.S. police departments, suggesting the drones can help in law enforcement, including by performing video surveillance, searching for people or vehicles using AI and thermal sensors. https://theintercept.com/2024/05/17/israel-orione-drone-us-police-louisiana/Publication: The InterceptWriter: Delaney Nolan
Content Type: Long Read
Sports are a huge part of daily life for billions around the world, a fundamental aspect of the rich tapestry of the human experience.Attending a major sporting event can be a formative experience in someone’s life, as a place to share in a communal culture.Increasingly we have seen surveillance, and especially mass surveillance measures, being introduced at sports events impeding the enjoyment particularly of the right to privacy and right to participate in sporting life.When we saw that the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
On 15 May 2024, a London Administrative Court handed down its judgment in the case of ADL & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department, just two months after another court judgment and a ruling of the UK's data protection authority (ICO). The four Claimants in this latest case (including asylum seekers and survivors of trafficking) were challenging the UK Home Office's policy of placing people released from immigration detention under 24/7 GPS surveillance - either by shackling them…
Content Type: Long Read
IntroductionFor years PI has been exposing and advocating against the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) and the grave threats it poses to our rights. This highly invasive technology is paving the way to a dystopian, biometric surveillance state, where everyone is identified and tracked everywhere they go, in real time, as they move through public spaces during their everyday lives. Furthermore, this is taking place within a democratic vacuum, without any specific legislation pertaining…
Content Type: Advocacy
The United Nations (UN) Committee on the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) has published a damning "Report on follow-up to the inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" which calls upon the United Kingdom (UK) to take action against the human rights risks posed by the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for automated decision-making in the social security system in order to decide who can receive benefits. Published in…
Content Type: Examples
New rules rolled out by India's app-based home services platform Urban Company require its more than 52,000 workers to maintain ratings of a minimum of 4.7 (out of 5), accept 70% of job leads, and cancel only four jobs a month. The company says the rules are intended to improve customer experience and raise standards, and may increase its requirements to 80% acceptance and three cancellations. Workers who don't meet the requirements must attend online (free) or offline (fee-bearing) training,…
Content Type: Examples
Workplace surveillance has become a reality in the US in every type of job from financial executives to radiologists to warehouse workers, tracking in detail how workers spend their time. Often, time spent on manual tasks does not register as working time, leading to lost pay or even lost jobs. Workers subjected to electronic surveillance report that they have lost autonomy and that the constant pressure of electronic micromanagement is demoralising, humiliating, and toxic. https://www.…
Content Type: Examples
A summary of Karen Levy's 2023 book Data Driven, which studies the installation of electronic logging devices in the cabs of US truckers, removing much of their traditional autonomy. Nominally installed to improve safety, the devices actually are making trucking less safe by pushing experienced drivers out of the profession and removing the flexibility that allows truckers to respond to conditions on the ground. Strategies are needed to ensure that AI does not fundamentally reallocate burdens…
Content Type: Examples
The Dutch data protection authority has fined Uber €10 million for failing to inform drivers how long it retains their data or how it secures it when sending it to countries outside the EEA, and hindering drivers' access to their data by making requests unnecessarily complicated. The fine follows a complaint filed by 170 French drivers with a human rights organization, which complained to the French data protection authority, which forwarded It to the Netherlands, where Uber has its European…
Content Type: Examples
The Spanish data protection regulator AEPD has fined Glovo €550,000 for excessively surveilling delivery drivers and failing to protect their data from abuse by company personnel in other countries. The data includes details of each delivery, all communications exchanged with the platform, and reputation scores. The Spanish regulator was inspired to investigate after a 2020 warning from its Italian counterpart, which was investigating Glovo's Italian food delivery subsidiary, Foodinho. …
Content Type: Examples
FullScreen Research claims that in the competitive German food delivery market, Lieferando uses automation to monitor its employees and that Wolt violates labour laws by paying couriers in cash and employing them illegally A former supervisor with Lieferando says that the system flags up abnormalities for a team of watching agents, who see each courier's exact location and are supposed to ask drivers the reason for delays. Lieferando denies that it illegally controls drivers'…
Content Type: Examples
Former delivery driver Edrissa Manjang is pursuing a claim for harassment, indirect discrimination, and victimisation in UK courts, alleging that a racially-biased algorithm kicked him off Uber Eats' ride-sharing app. After Uber Eats supplied information that contradicted Manjang's original claims, the judge gave him leave to amend his complaint but refused him permission to use emails sent him during the litigation as evidence of harassment. Manjang, who is black and of African descent, says…
Content Type: Examples
In response to a case brought by three Italian trade unions, a court in Palermo has ruled that the points system used by the Italian food delivery service Foodinho discriminates against disabled and older riders, as well as those with special family or personal circumstances. A subsidiary of Spain's Glovo Group, Foodinho's system awards higher scores to riders who complete more deliveries or are available at peak times; high scores give riders greater choice and better work opportunities. …
Content Type: Examples
In a study of the data Uber collected on a Geneva driver who obtained his data via a Subject Access Request, the Gig Economy Project finds that the data is difficult for drivers to parse, contains many inaccuracies, and is incomplete. In addition, obtaining the data in the first place is near impossible. Personaldata.io, which helped the driver analyse his data, believes Uber's response is in violation of the rights guaranteed under GDPR.https://braveneweurope.com/uber-drivers-and-data-can-…
Content Type: Examples
Foodinho, the Italian food delivery subsidiary of the Spanish company Glovo, continues to accumulate millions of euros in fines for infringements of labour law such as collecting and misusing riders' data. New research studying Glovo's app indicates that the company appears to have created its own hidden scoring system so evaluate couriers' performance, and shares personally identified riders' after-hours location with Google and other unauthorised third-party trackers.https://algorithmwatch.…
Content Type: Examples
A former TikTok moderator in Kenya has threatened a lawsuit against TikTok's owner, ByteDance, alleging that he has developed PTSD as a result of his work for the company and that he was unfairly dismissed for advocating for better working conditions. In a letter, his lawyer alleges that the job required him to watch 250 to 350 videos per hour, the vast majority of them "horrific in nature".https://time.com/6293271/tiktok-bytedance-kenya-moderator-lawsuit/ Publication: Time MagazineWriter…
Content Type: Examples
Uber Eats delivery drivers in northern French cities went on strike on October 22, 2023 to protest falling wages since the platform changed its policies to effectively reduce its per-kilometre compensation. Drivers complain the platform is less transparent since the changes.https://actu.fr/economie/livreurs-uber-eats-en-greve-dans-le-nord-ils-denoncent-une-baisse-de-leur-remuneration_60249320.html Publication: Lille Actu
Content Type: Examples
Companies like the Australian data services company Appen are part of a vast, hidden industry of low-paid workers in some of the globe's cheapest labour markets who label images, video, and text to provide the datasets used to train the algorithms that power new bots. Appen, which has 1 million contributors, includes among its clients Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. According to Grand View Research, the global data collection and labelling market was valued at $2.22 billion in 2022 and is…
Content Type: Examples
Trailing well after their European counterparts, US and Canadian trade unions are just now beginning to push for protections against workplace surveillance. The Communications Workers of America has won requirements that managers notify workers when recording their calls and a guarantee that those calls will not be used to evaluate or discipline workers. AFL-CIO has created a technology institute to build its expertise and policies on AI and other technologies; it will also offer training for…