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Content Type: Examples
Authorities in South Korea, which had been successful in containing the coronavirus early on due to its aggressive testing programme, began trying to trace more than 5,500 people who visited a group of bars between April 2 and May 6 because a single infected customer led to a new outbreak. More than 3,000, some of them for fear of being stigmatised as gay, remained out of reach while the number of cases rose to 101. Gay people have little protection in South Korea, and the news of the…
Content Type: Examples
The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh created a COVID-19 dashboard that displayed the names of at least 5,400 quarantined people, their device IDs and names, their OS version, app version codes, current GPS coordinates, and office GPS coordinates. Shortly after the dashboard's existence was posted on Twitter by a French programmer, MAP-IT, the state's IT centre in Bhopal that developed the system, replied that it had been taken down, saying the information was intended to be confidential.
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Content Type: Examples
Shortly after launch, security researcher Baptiste Robert discovered that India's contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu ("Health Bridge"), allows users to spoof their GPS location, find out how many people reported themselves as infected within any 500-metre radius, and mount a triangulation attack to confirm someone else's suspected positive diagnosis. The app, which was created by the government's National Informatics Centre, uses GPS to track people's movements rather than Bluetooth as many…
Content Type: Examples
The rush to incorporate greater safety from the coronavirus is bringing with it a new wave of workplace surveillance as companies install tracking software to determine who may have been exposed and which areas need deep cleaning if an employee gets infected; monitor social distancing; and use Bluetooth beacons embedded in badges to locate employees.
Companies are also installing thermal cameras to take employees' temperature as they enter the workplace or public area. Companies are also…
Content Type: Examples
Amazon has spent $10 million to buy 1,500 cameras to take the temperature of workers from the Chinese firm Zhejiang Dahua Technology Company even though the US previously blacklisted Dahua because it was alleged to have helped China detain and monitor the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
The cameras work by comparing a person’s radiation with a separate infrared calibration device and uses face detection technology to make sure it is looking for heat in the right part of the subjects…
Content Type: Examples
In a technical analysis of the UK NHSx contact tracing app for iOS, security engineers find that Apple's Bluetooth design makes it harder to detect iPhones running the app in background mode, and the app is using "keepalive" notifications in order to keep the app able to make the necessary connections. The researchers believe this workaround will work sufficiently well for users in populated areas. The app appears to abide by the privacy safeguards listed in the paper released by the National…
Content Type: Examples
Moscow's first attempts to introduce digital methods by which residents could obtain digital passes to move around the city failed as the website collapsed numerous times and the app required them to get a pass for every single move rather than only to drive a car, as the government has stated. City authorities blamed DDoS attackers for the website problems and Muscovites' stupidity for the app issues and similar difficulties with SMS messages. There was also confusion over whether certain…
Content Type: Examples
The global pandemic that has been declared by COVID-19 is already affecting countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Recognizing the seriousness of this health crisis and the legal possibility for governments to take exceptional measures to control the pandemic, it is essential to remember that these must be carried out in strict accordance with human rights standards.
Signed by AlSur, a consortium of 11 civil society organizations and academia from various Latin American and Caribbean…
Content Type: Examples
The state of Utah gave the AI company Banjo real time access to state traffic cameras, CCTV, and public safety cameras, 911 emergency systems, location data for state-owned vehicles, and other data that the company says it's combining with information collected from social media, satellites, and various apps in order to detect anomalies in the real world and alert law enforcement to crimes as they are happening. The company claims its algorithm can do all this while stripping all personal data…
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from IPANDETEC in Panamá wrote about privacy and personal data in the context of the COVID-19 response, stating that throughout Central America, data protection laws and patient privacy lean towards respecting their privacy before the scientific interest of their cases.
Link: https://www.ipandetec.org/2020/03/18/coronavirus-privacidad-datos/
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from the Foundation for Media Alternatives in Philippines reported different ways in which the COVID-19 is impacting public health and privacy rights.
Link: https://www.fma.ph/2020/03/15/public-health-and-privacy-amid-covid-19-the-fma-digital-rights-report/
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from the Centre for Internet & Society in India wonder themselves whether the use of an official chatbot to advance ‘right information’ is the most efficient way to handle misinformation?. In a recent example, a ministry released advisories on how homeopathy can prevent the coronavirus infection, which was proved to be false by many scientific sources. This heightens the problem of fake news or the spread of i.e. incorrect information as it comes from an official source.
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Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Digital Rights Foundation in Pakistan wrote a piece analysing cases of privacy violations, misinformation, hate speech and other cases. As they said, the situation with regards to the Coronavirus is still developing in the country and Digital Rights Foundation, are keeping an eye out for the developments regarding the disease and also assessing how the digital rights sphere is being affected.
Link: https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/protecting-your-digital-rights-during-the-…
Content Type: Examples
The controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI, which came to public attention for scraping billions of photos off social media sites to create a comprehensive facial recognition system, says it has offered to help US federal and three state agencies with contact tracing. The company claims its technology could use the cameras already in place to identify people in surveillance video in restaurants or stores where they may have come into contact with others who subsequently test…
Content Type: Examples
Six weeks after British prime minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown, many workers in non-essential jobs across many sectors of the economy were nonetheless being forced to continue working in potentially dangerous situations such as call centres, offices, factories, warehouses, and English construction sites as cleaners, security guards, warehouse workers, and office staff. It was left up to their bosses to decide whether or not they could work from home. The government's own statistics…
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Unwanted Witness in Uganda wrote a formal letter to the Ministry of Information Communications Technology and National Guidance demanding for strict observance of human rights for any intended use of surveillance technologies to fight COVID-19.
In a letter addressed to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT, Hon. Vincent Bagiire and copied to Minister Judith Nabakooba, calls on government to respect its human rights obligation and restrain from exercising excessive…
Content Type: Examples
At a cost to itself of £88,000 a week in salaries alone, Palantir has committed 45 engineers to a government data project intended to help predict surges in demand for the NHS during the pandemic. The company will be paid £1 a week for its work. Besides Palantir's work supporting the US Immigration Customs and Enforcement, a major concern is vendor lock-in that may make it difficult for NHSx to extract the insights Palantir helps it develop and move elsewhere.
https://tech.newstatesman.com/…
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from SMEX in Lebanon analysed surveillance measures in the country.
Lebanon, like many other countries, has launched digital tools to help diagnose and monitor the spread of the outbreak. The tools launched by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) do not appear to harvest data, but they require excessive user permissions, which is particularly concerning given Lebanon’s weak legal framework for data protection.
Link: https://smex.org/what-the-lebanese-government-can-do-to…
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Coding Rights in Brazil analysed 18 different Bills introduced to the Congress to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic (in Portuguese).
Link: https://www.codingrights.org/radar-legislativo-especial-covid-19-e-tecnologia/
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Internet Lab in Brazil started a series of podcasts to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 in the country. They are all recorded and available in the website (in Portuguese).
Link: https://www.internetlab.org.br/pt/noticias/antivirus-um-programa-para-discutir-a-tecnologia-direitos-e-a-pandemia/
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Hiperderecho in Peru proposed 15 measures to improve the COVID-19 app that the Peruvian Government is rolling out in the country (in Spanish).
Link: https://hiperderecho.org/2020/04/quince-propuestas-para-mejorar-la-aplicacion-del-gobierno-del-covid-19/
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Tedic in Paraguay analysed different tech proposals from the Paraguayan government, saying that emergencies are not a 'blank check' for them to do whatever they want (in Spanish).
Link: https://www.tedic.org/noesunchequeenblanco/
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Tedic in Paraguay analysed a government proposal to use drones to enforce the lockdown measures in that country (in Spanish).
Link: https://www.tedic.org/uso-de-drones-covid19/
Content Type: Examples
The French government asked Apple to change the way its phones handle Bluetooth in order to accommodate the design of its contact tracing app. Downloading and installing the app will be voluntary, but the app will use a centralised design in which the data will be fed into a government server for processing.
Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/france-asks-apple-to-relax-iphone-security-for-coronavirus-tracking-app-development/
Writer: Charlie Osborne
Publication: ZDNet
Content Type: Examples
The International Press Institute has found that in both democratic and autocratic states the public health crisis has given governments the excuse of preventing the spread of disinformation to exercise control over the media, whether by criminalising journalism or controlling the public narrative and restricting access to information about the pandemic. The International Federal of Journalists has also found that three-quarters of journalists report that working conditions have deteriorated…
Content Type: Examples
In April, the US state of North Carolina's Dare County enacted a series of emergency declarations that establish checkpoints at all points where roads cross the county borders; travellers show an ID card with a Dare County address or a county-issued permit in order to enter the county. Dare County, which consists of barrier beaches and other islands on the Outer Banks of the coast, is served by only three roads in and out of the country, and all routes cross bridges or causeways. Because the…
Content Type: Examples
At least 27 countries are using data from cellphone companies to track the movements of their citizens, and at least 30 have developed smartphone apps for the public to download. Fewer objections have been raised in countries with greater levels of success in containing the virus. However, although Turkey has one of the worst outbreaks there has been little pushback against the surveillance even though the government is forcibly tracking people over 65, who are not allowed to leave their homes…
Content Type: Examples
In Colombia, Peru, and Panama, quarantine regulations assign men and women different days to go out. For transgender people, these gender-based restrictions mean discrimination and violence for law enforcement and others, leading to numerous complaints. In Bogota, where law enforcement has been instructed not to demand ID to prove gender and trans people are allowed to choose their day, one trans woman was stabbed by a man who said she was out on the wrong day, and another was blocked from…
Content Type: Examples
Our partners from Karisma in Colombia analysed three different technological solutions intending to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, finding vulnerabilities in them (in Spanish).
Link: https://web.karisma.org.co/que-sabemos-de-las-tres-herramientas-que-se-anuncian-como-soluciones-tecnologicas-para-el-manejo-del-covid-19/
Content Type: Examples
Civil Society advocates, including PI, expressed their dissaproval of a letter from the Colombian Data Protection Authority, which was intending to give a blank exception to the government in relation with handling the pandemic.
Link (in Spanish): https://web.karisma.org.co/organizaciones-de-la-sociedad-civil-rechazan-circular-de-la-sic-sobre-uso-de-datos-personales-para-controlar-la-pandemia/