Anonymity | Privacy International

Reports and Analysis

Long Read

Africa: SIM Card Registration Only Increases Monitoring and Exclusion

Image credit: Emil Sjöblom [ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)] Prepaid SIM card use and mandatory SIM card registration laws are especially widespread in countries in Africa: these two factors can allow for a more pervasive system of mass surveillance of people who can access prepaid SIM cards

Long Read

Data Exploitation and Democratic Societies

Image Source: "Voting Key" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Democratic society is under threat from a range of players exploiting our data in ways which are often hidden and unaccountable. These actors are manifold: traditional political parties (from the whole political spectrum)

News

15th June 2020

Ethnic minorities at greater risk of oversurveillance after protests

4th April 2016

Panama Papers law firm founder says massive offshore company leak is ‘campaign against privacy’. We disagree.

17th June 2015

Encryption and Anonymity create “a zone of privacy online”, says UN Special Rapporteur

Examples of Abuse

Want to know how this translate in the real world? Here is the latest example in the news.

US waives HIPAA violation penalties to enable new technologies

The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced it will waive penalties for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects patient data privacy. HHS argued that in the nationwide emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, greater latitude is needed

See more examples of abuse

Our Advocacy

A gender lens to the anonymity on social media debate

Cases of female and gender diverse public figures being targeted with online harassment have become sadly common in the news. Female politicians are particularly affected – although journalists and in particular sports commentators are also frequently targeted as well. In some cases, the harassment