Long Reads
Governments around the globe are adopting emergency welfare measures in the form of Covid-19 benefits. However, these short-term solutions often fall short of basic human rights safeguards, foreshadowing a concerning future for benefits claimants.
Coronavirus-related lockdown measures have impacted almost 2.7 billion workers, with some countries seeing unprecedented levels of applications for welfare benefits support. In response, emergency relief legislation for welfare recipients has been fast-tracked worldwide, from the UK to Brazil. These
The ongoing requirement for asylum-seekers to register their claim for asylum in person reveals the Home Office's misplaced and onerous emphasis on biometrics collection at the expense of asylum-seekers' health
Today, migrant communities in the UK already face multiple well-documented obstacles in accessing healthcare, not least because of charges to access the National Health Service (NHS), as it is the case for non-EU migrants, and legitimate fears of data-sharing between the NHS and the Home Office. In
Throughout these updates, we will do our best to avoid technical terms, obscure references or abstract discussions. We want you to be aware of how data power has grown and why we need to act. This post focuses on data and competition law developments in the UK.
Photo by Cade Roberts on Unsplash For those of you who don't spend the most productive part of your day scanning the news for developments about data and competition, here's what has been going on in the UK since summer 2019
A year after we launched our new programme called 'Defending Democracy and Dissent', we are bringing together here some of the key developments
Today is 1st May, an international day of protest. It also marks a year since PI launched our new programme of work called ‘Defending Democracy and Dissent’. One year on we find ourselves in a situation where 1 May protests in the streets will not be going ahead. Rights have been restricted around
The Israeli intelligence services have been tracking Covid-19 patients for contact tracing. As the High Court condemned the measure, what can the rest of the world learn from this controversial experiment?
UPDATE 21/07/2020: On Monday July 20th, the Israeli parliament approved a new bill allowing the Ministry of Health to rely again on the Intelligence Services to track people who may have been exposed to Covid 19 when the number of new cases reaches 200 and above per day. The authorisation is then
Review of approach of a number of platforms (TikTok, SnapChat, Pintrest, LinkedIn, Spotify, Amazon and Reddit) to political advertising - including targeting more broadly and ads transparency (for users and researchers).
This review is based on information in the public domain, primarily that of the platforms themselves. It is not exhaustive and this field moves with speed - however, it aims to offer a snapshot of approaches and practices. TikTok TikTok is a short-form video app (owned by ByteDance) which allows
This Privacy International report documents 10 data exploitative technologies and tactics being developed to delay or curtail access to reproductive healthcare globally.
The organised opposition to sexual and reproductive rights has gone digital. Data exploitative tech is being developed that is capable of obtaining vast amounts of intimate information about people’s reproductive health, and delaying or curtailing access to reproductive healthcare. Technology
Increased trust makes every response to COVID-19 stronger. Lack of trust and confidence can undermine everything. Should we trust governments and industry with their app solutions at this moment of global crisis?
‘Let’s build an app for that’ has become the response to so many things. It’s no surprise it’s happening now. Apps are notorious for their lack of security and privacy safeguards, exploiting people’s data and devices. Now we’re being asked to trust
Following Margaret Atwood's comments that the response to Covid-19 does not amount to "deliberate totalitarianism” we wrote an open letter to her in response, agreeing with her but noting that we may be sleepwalking into a dystopia created by accident rather than design.
On 15th April Margaret Atwood, author of the Handmaid's Tale, gave an interview to BBC Radio 5 Live where she commented that ‘people may be making arrangements that aren’t too pleasant, but it’s not a deliberate totalitarianism’. You can read more about the interview in the Guardian. While we agree
Africa is a testing ground for technologies produced elsewhere: as a result, personal data of its people are increasingly stored in hundreds of databases.
Commercial interests seem to often overshadow the EU’s stance as a global privacy leader. After looking at Europes's shady funds to border forces in the Sahel area, Niger's new biometric voting system, and attempts to dismantle smugglers networks powered by Europe's gifts of surveillance, freelance