Protest surveillance today involves the acquisition, processing, generation, analysis, use, retention or storage of information about people engaging in protest just for participating in protests, without any regard to whether they are suspected of wrongdoing.

Protest surveillance negatively affects human rights, especially the right to privacy and freedoms of assembly and expression. Unjustified interferences with privacy prevents the enjoyment of other rights and they often provide the gateway to the violation of the rest of human rights freedom of movement, principle of non discrimination, as well as political participation.

Protest surveillance enables significant power imbalances and hinders people’s autonomy and dignity and creates an atmosphere of fear around speaking out.

It creates an environment of suspicion and threat, which can cause people who are not engaged in any wrongdoing to change their behaviour, including the way they act, speak and communicate.

In doing so, it inhibits the legitimate exercise of our rights. It endangers society’s ability to experiment and evolve, and challenge power structures.

• PI is has brought legal challenges against the disproportionate use of surveillance powers such as the mass interception of communications.
• We educate people on how to take steps to protect their privacy when participating in protests.
• We conduct research on new technologies and how they are used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, in order to better inform the public debate around whether and if their use is justified.
• We analyse the impact of other forms of surveillance on the right to privacy and on how it affects groups of individuals.
• We push national and international bodies to listen to peoples’ concerns and take steps to protect people’s privacy. We also contribute to the development of international standards.
• Together with our global network, we advocate and campaign to protect the right to privacy, autonomy, and dignity.