Profiling

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Explainer

What does your face say about you? Phrenology, physiognomy and society

47m47s

Advertisers on Facebook: who the heck are you and how did you get my data?

Investigating brands using Facebook for advertising, exposing how difficult it is to understand how our data's used and demanding Facebook make it easier to exercise our rights

Report and Analysis

Key Resources

A black female content creator at her desk in front of a camera with an ominous black box with data points and an eye on one face looking at her behind her shoulder

Content Creators Working for the Algorithm

Creators who produce content for big online platforms, from video game livestreamers on Twitch to adult content producers on platforms like OnlyFans, often find themselves forced to share a lot of data, putting their privacy and security at risk while being given limited information as to how this data is being used.

Long Read

Creating content in the gig economy: a risky business

The rise of the gig-economy, a way of working relying on short term contracts and temporary jobs rather than on an employed workforce, has enabled the growth of a number of companies over the last few years. But without the rights that comes with full employment, gig economy workers today don't have access to essential protections.

Long Read

The World Bank & social protection during crises: a privacy trade-off?

Privacy International ("PI") researched a number of social safety-net projects financed by the World Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic. To inform the World Bank's future implementation of these kinds of projects, this article reflects on how certain aspects of social protection projects can inadvertently lead to excessive surveillance of marginalised communities, impact equal access to urgent social protection disbursements, and interfere with people's dignity and right to privacy.

News

20th May 2021

New Android 12 privacy features don't mean Google actually care about your privacy

17th December 2020

Press Release: European Commission green lights Google and Fitbit merger in a game-changing and disappointing decision for the rights of millions of Europeans

27th October 2020

UK data regulator takes enforcement action to rein in data brokers' use of people's personal data

24th September 2020

Facebook response on advertising: A failure to acknowledge responsibility

4th August 2020

Banning TikTok? It's time to fix the out-of-control data exploitation industry - not a symptom of it

15th June 2020

Ethnic minorities at greater risk of oversurveillance after protests

Examples of Abuse

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

US police expand surveillance in response to Black Lives Matter protests

During the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, US police took advantage of a lack of regulation and new technologies to expand the scope of people and platforms they monitor; details typically emerge through lawsuits, public records disclosures, and stories released by police department PR

See more examples of abuse

Our Advocacy

PI's response to DCMS' Online Advertising Programme consultation in the UK.

Summary

The ministerial Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in the UK recently ran a consultation to review the regulatory framework for paid-for online advertising. The aim according to DCMS is "to tackle the evident lack of transparency and accountability across the whole supply chain."

PI has long been concerned about the online advertising industry, particularly the harm caused by adtech companies and data brokers in the advertising supply chain. PI welcomed the opportunity to respond to the Online Advertising Programme (OAP) consultation.