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Content Type: Long Read
On 13 March 2025, we filed a complaint against the UK government challenging their use of dangerous, disproportionate and intrusive surveillance powers to undermine the privacy and security of people all over the world. Here, we answer some key questions about the case and the recent events that led to this development.Note: This post was last updated on 13 March 2025.What’s the fuss about?A month ago, it was reported that the UK government demanded Apple Inc – maker of the iPhone, iPads, Macs…
Content Type: Explainer
Imagine this: a power that secretly orders someone anywhere in the world to abide and the receiver can’t tell anyone, can’t even publicly say if they disagree, and can’t really question the power in open court because the secret order is, well, secret. Oh and that power affects billions of people’s security and their data. And despite being affected, we too can’t question the secret order.In this piece we will outline what’s ridiculous, the absurd, and the downright disturbing about what’s…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Edit: 13 March 2025 - You can find more about what happened next on our case pageOn February 21st, Apple disabled their ‘advanced data protection’ service for UK customers. That means no-one in Great Britain can now enable a powerful security safeguard that people who use Apple devices everywhere else on the planet can: user controlled end-to-end encryption of stored data.This is likely in response to a disturbing secret government power. Well, that’s what we think happened. We can’t know for…
Content Type: Advocacy
We responded to the Home Office consultation on codes of practices under the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024 (IPAA). Our response focused on (1) the draft codes relating to bulk personal datasets with low or no reasonable expection of privacy, (2) third-party bulk personal datasets and (3) the notices regime. You can download our full response with its 23 recommendations for reform at the bottom of this page.'Low Privacy' Bulk Personal DatasetsThe IPAA introduces a new concept of…
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: Video
The case dealt with a Russian law obliging telecommunications service providers to indiscriminately retain content and communications data for certain time periods, as well as a 2017 disclosure order by the Russian Federal Security Service requiring Telegram Messenger company to disclose technical information which would facilitate “the decoding of communications”.Links:PI case pageECtHR judgment in the Podchasov casePI's work on encryptionPI's report on End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)More…
Content Type: Video
LinksFind out more about encryption:Computerphile on YouTube is a computer science professor with a range of useful and accessible videos on encryptionCloudflare have a helpful learning centre including this article on how encryption works and why cloudflare use Lava lamps to generate keysThis is a helpful article on Diffie-Hellman including a diagram of the colours demonstration, which Ed discusses during the podcastThis article is great for learning more about hashingAnd if you're interested…
Content Type: Advocacy
BackgroundThe Snowden revelations and subsequent litigation have repeatedly identified unlawful state surveillance by UK agencies. In response, the UK Parliament passed the highly controversial Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA), which authorised massive, suspicionless surveillance on a scale never seen before, with insufficient safeguards or independent oversight.Privacy International led legal challenges to this mass surveillance regime both before and after the Act became law. The Act…
Content Type: Long Read
In June 2023, the UK government announced its proposal to expand its surveillance powers by, among others, forcing communications operators to undermine encryption or abstain from providing security software updates globally. Building on our response to the government’s plans, this piece explains why what they want to do puts every one of us at risk.
Why your trust (to technologies you use) matters
Surveillance and privacy are complex concepts to grasp – it’s part of the appeal to us at PI.…
Content Type: Advocacy
We are responding to the UK Government's consultation to expand its powers around Technical Capabilities Notices and National Security Notices.
Background
Following Edward Snowden's revelations about the illegal and expansive secret powers of the US and UK intelligence agencies, the UK Government took the opportunity to, rather than reflect on what powers are proportionate in the modern era, to expand its arsenal of surveillance powers.
One of the powers it added was the ability to issue…
Content Type: Long Read
On 18th January, it was announced that end-to-end encrypted iCloud services, Advanced Data Protection, would be offered to Apple users globally.The offer of such level of security globally, while overdue, is a key step to ensuring trust and confidence in today’s world. There are too many threats to our data and our rights. Twelve years ago, we called on Apple to encrypt iCloud storage for users all around the world.Why this is importantWhile privacy and security is often portrayed as opposite…
Content Type: News & Analysis
We have been fighting for transparency and stronger regulation of the use of IMSI catchers by law enforcement in the UK since 2016. The UK police forces have been very secretive about the use of IMSI catchers – maintaining a strict “neither confirm nor deny” (NCND) policy. In our efforts to seek greater clarity we wrote to the UK body which monitors the use of covert investigatory powers, the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO), asking the Commissioner to revisit this…
Content Type: Report
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) contributes significantly to security and privacy. For that reason, PI has long been in favour of the deployment of robust E2EE.Encryption is a way of securing digital communications using mathematical algorithms that protect the content of a communication while in transmission or storage. It has become essential to our modern digital communications, from personal emails to bank transactions. End-to-end encryption is a form of encryption that is even more private.…
Content Type: Video
On 6 February 2021, the Constitutional Court of South Africa in a historic judgment declared unconstitutional years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities against millions of people - irrespective of whether they reside in South Africa.
The Court powerfully placed the judgment in historical context:
The constitutionally protected right to privacy seeks to be one of the guarantees that South Africa will not again act like the police state that it was under apartheid…
Content Type: Long Read
What’s the ruling all about?
The Constitutional Court of South Africa in a historic judgment declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid. Furthermore, the Constitutional Court found that the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) 1) was deficient in failing to provide at least a post-notification procedure for subjects of interception; 2) failed to ensure the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Today, the Constitutional Court of South Africa in a historic judgment declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid.
The judgment is a confirmation of the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria’s powerful rejection of years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities against millions of people - irrespective of whether they reside in South Africa.
The case was brought by two applicants, the amaBhungane Centre…
Content Type: Report
The majority of people today carry a mobile phone with them wherever they go, which they use to stay connected to the world. Yet an intrusive tool, known as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity catcher, or “IMSI catcher” is a form of surveillance equipment that enables governments and state authorities to conduct indiscriminate surveillance of mobile devices, and by extension, on users.
IMSI catchers can do much more than monitor and intercept mobile communications. Designed to imitate…
Content Type: News & Analysis
IMSI catchers (or stingrays as they are known in the US) are one of the surveillance technologies that has come to the forefront again in the protests against police brutality and systemic racism that have been sparked by the murder of George Floyd on 25 May 2020.
An International Mobile Subscriber Identity catcher – in short an “IMSI catcher” – is an intrusive piece of technology that can be used to locate and track all mobile phones that are switched on in a certain area. It does so by…
Content Type: Long Read
In December 2019, the Information Rights Tribunal issued two disappointing decisions refusing appeals brought by Privacy International (PI) against the UK Information Commissioner.
The appeals related to decisions by the Information Commissioner (IC), who is responsible for the UK’s Freedom of Information regime, concerning responses by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire and the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis (The Metropolitan Police) to PI’s freedom of information…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Today, the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria in a historic decision declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid.
The judgment is a powerful rejection of years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities against millions of people - irrespective of whether they reside in South Africa.
The case was brought by two applicants, the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism and journalist Stephen…
Content Type: Long Read
The Privacy International Network is celebrating Data Privacy Week, where we’ll be talking about how trends in surveillance and data exploitation are increasingly affecting our right to privacy. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek.
In the era of smart cities, the gap between the internet and the so-called physical world is closing. Gone are the days, when the internet was limited to your activities behind a desktop screen, when nobody knew you were a dog.
Today, the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Our intervention comes on the back of mounting evidence that the South African state’s surveillance powers have been abused, and so-called “checks & balances” in RICA have failed to protect citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.
Among our core arguments are:
That people have a right to be notified when their communications have been intercepted so that they can take action when they believe their privacy has been unlawfully breached. Currently RICA prevents such notification, unlike…
Content Type: Press release
Privacy International, represented by Liberty, is challenging court decision allowing police to ‘neither confirm nor deny’ they hold certain information on IMSI catchers
Privacy rights organisation has fought for almost two years for public disclosure of records on how UK police purchase and use mobile phone surveillance technology
Privacy International has today filed an appeal challenging police forces’ refusal to disclose information on their purchase and use of IMSI catchers.
IMSI…
Content Type: Report
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently issued a series of decisions in Privacy International’s long-running battle for information about UK police forces' acquisition of IMSI catchers. This case study provides an in-depth summary and analysis of this process.
We hope it is useful to both campaigners seeking greater transparency from policing bodies, and more widely to Freedom of Information campaigners who are trying to challenge 'neither confirm nor deny' responses to FOI…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Create Commons Photo Credit: Source
Privacy International has achieved an important victory for government transparency and information access rights. This victory stems from a long-running battle with the government to obtain information about the UK police’s purchase and use of IMSI catchers. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently issued a series of decisions, which agree with Privacy International that police forces cannot rely on a position of “neither confirm nor deny” (NCND…
Content Type: Explainer
What is an IMSI catcher?
An IMSI catcher is an intrusive piece of technology that can be used to locate and track all mobile phones that are switched on in a certain area.
An IMSI catcher does this by ‘pretending’ to be a mobile phone tower - tricking your phone into connecting to the IMSI-catcher, and then revealing your personal details without your knowledge.
IMSI catchers are indiscriminate surveillance tools that could be used to track who attends a political demonstration or a…