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Policing

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Explainer

How the police can gain access to your phone's content at a protest

Explainer

How social media monitoring can be used at a protest

Explainer

How the police can access your phone's 'unique identifiers' at a protest

Explainer

How the police can access your digital communications at a protest

Explainer

How predictive policing can be used at protests

Explainer

How the 'Law Enforcement Data Service' (LEDS) can be used at protests

Podcast: Extraction

43m27s

You’re a witness or a victim or a suspect of a crime; or even just travelling going on holiday. Officials demand your phone, then disappear with it. What happened to your phone? What happened to your data? What will happen to you?

We all generate vast amounts of data using our mobile phones -

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Featured Campaign

Photo by King's Church International on Unsplash
Campaigns

UK Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS): the new police mega-database

The Home Office is currently developing a UK-wide police 'super-database' containing a vast amount of data, which mixes both evidential and intelligence material. Here is why PI is concerned about LEDS and what we are doing about it.
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Report and Analysis

Long Read
Application form graphic

Fact sheet on your data rights in relation to police surveillance at protests

An overview of your data rights in relation to data processed by the police at protests (UK edition).

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Long Read
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Fact sheet on photographing police officers at a protest

An overview of relevant considerations if and when photographing or filming police at a protest (UK edition).

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Report
Migration Surveillance Regime

The UK’s Privatised Migration Surveillance Regime: A Rough Guide for Civil Society

Privacy International has released a guide to how UK authorities track and monitor immigrants and the companies which profit.
 

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News

7th February 2023

Use of mobile phone extraction tools by law enforcement in Argentina

27th July 2021

Taming Pegasus: A Way Forward on Surveillance Tech Proliferation

6th July 2021

The Policing Bill: Immigration Officers to get phone data extraction powers

29th June 2021

Policing Bill: An unsatisfactory debut on the statute books for mobile phone extraction

17th March 2021

The new Policing Bill fails to provide sufficient safeguards around extraction of victims' data.

8th March 2021

Challenging Police records management: our response to the public consultation on the way Police in England and Wales record and store information

Examples of Abuse

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

New York Police Department expands surveillance post-9/11

The 20 years since the 9/11 attacks have fundamentally changed the way the New York Police Department operates, leading it to use facial recognition software, licence plate readers, and mobile X-ray vans, among other surveillance tools for both detecting and blocking potential terrorist attacks and
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See more examples of abuse

Our Advocacy

PI and 30 CSOs unite against use of live facial recognition technology

Summary

Today, a coalition of 31 civil society organisations release an open letter calling on Parliament to halt and ban the use of live facial recognition technology (LFRT) by the police and private companies.

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