Long Reads
Office of Surveillance Commissioners Guidance - Covert surveillance of Social Networking Sites (SNS)
In October 2019 Privacy International sent Freedom of Information Act requests to every Local Authority in Great Britain in relation to their use of social media monitoring. You can find our report here.
The Office of Surveillance Commissioners (OSC) and subsequently the Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) regulate and oversee how public authorities use the investigatory powers available to them under existing law.
Below is an extract from the Office of Surveillance Commissioners Guidance - Covert surveillance of Social Networking Sites (SNS) - Note 289
Covert surveillance of Social Networking Sites (SNS) 289. The fact that digital investigation is routine or easy to conduct does not reduce the need for authorisation. Care must be taken to understand how the SNS being used works. Authorising Officers must not be tempted to assume that one service
As Governments, Apple and Google compete in proximity tracing, here’s our take on building tech in times of crisis.
Covid Apps are on their way to a phone near you. Is it another case of tech-solutionism or a key tool in our healthcare response to the pandemic? It’s fair to say that nobody quite knows just yet. We’ve been tracking these apps since [the early days](https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/3675
This country case-study was informed by research carried out by Hiperderecho.
This research was commissioned as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights. Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project. Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and
Our partner organisation InternetLab has been researching the Bolsa Familia Program and its consequences for gender and privacy, here are the first results.
This article has been written by our partner organisation InternetLab. Read this article in Portuguese here. Over the last months, the organisation InternetLab has researched privacy, data protection, gender, and social protection, focusing on the beneficiaries of the Bolsa Familia Program (PBF)
As the UK is about to launch its app to trace potential Coronavirus patients; as it launches its 'pilot' we look at its technical functionalities.
This week saw the release of a coronavirus tracking app within the United Kingdom, initially to be trialled in the Isle of Wight. Privacy International has been following this closely, along with other ‘track and trace’ apps like those seen in over 30 other countries. The UK’s app is no different
Palantir, the US data giant which works with intelligence and immigration enforcement agencies, has responded to our questions about its work on a highly sensitive National Health Service (NHS) project, providing some assurances, passing the buck to the NHS, and raising additional questions.
On 12 April 2020, citing confidential documents, the Guardian reported Palantir would be involved in a Covid-19 data project which "includes large volumes of data pertaining to
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