Refugees

Private intelligence company monitored people protesting Trump’s family separation policies

29 Apr 2019

A private intelligence company, LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, used social media to monitor more than 600 “Family Separation Day Protests” held across the United States on June 30, 2018, to oppose the Trump administration’s policy family separation policy. The policy was part of a “zero tolerance”

Advocacy

@ Social Media: Protect Your Users From Border Surveillance!

Privacy International has today sent letters to leading social media platforms to ask what they're doing to protect their users' from dangerous surveillance by government immigration authorities. The letter comes following the implementation of plans by US authorities to require nearly all visa

News & Analysis

ICE is Paying Millions to Surveillance Company to Spy on People’s Communications

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency at the centre of carrying out President Trump’s “zero tolerance” approach to immigration enforcement and family separation, has for years been contracting a US surveillance company to intercept peoples’ communications across the United States

North Korean escapees at risk of alleged North Korean state hackers

28 Dec 2018

A November 2018 breach of a government-funded resettlement agency's database in South Korea allowed hackers, believed to be North Korean state security officials, to copy the personal information belonging to 997 North Koreans living in South Korea. Escaping to South Korea is considered an act of

News & Analysis

Communities at risk: How encroaching surveillance is putting a squeeze on activists

Protest movements throughout history have helped to shape the world we know today. From the suffragettes to the civil rights movement, and to contemporary movements such as those focusing on LGBTIQ+ rights, protests have become a vital way for many, who feel powerless otherwise, to have their voices

Draft US reports call for long-term surveillance of Sunni Muslim immigrants

In a draft January 2018 report obtained by Foreign Policy and produced at the request of US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, the Department of Homeland Security called for continuous vetting of Sunni Muslim immigrants deemed to have "at-risk" profiles. Based on studying 25

IBM claims its i2 software can identify terrorists

In 2015, IBM began testing its i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis software to see if it could pick out terrorists, distinguish genuine refugees from imposters carrying fake passports, and perhaps predict bomb attacks. Using a scoring system based on several data sources and a hypothetical scenario, IBM