Fight Data Retention Law

Reversing the trend of governments demanding industry to participate in surveillance by retaining our personal data.

News & Analysis

Bulk surveillance is unlawful, says the High Court of South Africa

Today, the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria in a historic decision declared that bulk interception by the South African National Communications Centre is unlawful and invalid. The judgment is a powerful rejection of years of secret and unchecked surveillance by South African authorities

News & Analysis

After Watson: Mandatory data retention by telecommunications operators

A recap of what happened in the UK, after CJEU's Tele2/Watson judgment

Advocacy

Our response to the Government's post-Watson Comms Data Code

RESPONSE OF PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL TO THE CONSULTATION ON THE GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSED RESPONSE TO THE RULING OF THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION ON 21 DECEMBER 2016 REGARDING THE RETENTION OF COMMUNICATIONS DATA [Full response below] Introduction The consultation is in response to the

Long Read

Africa: SIM Card Registration Only Increases Monitoring and Exclusion

Image credit: Emil Sjöblom [ ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)] Prepaid SIM card use and mandatory SIM card registration laws are especially widespread in countries in Africa: these two factors can allow for a more pervasive system of mass surveillance of people who can access prepaid SIM cards

Long Read

Our Data Future

By Valentina Pavel, PI Mozilla-Ford Fellow, 2018-2019 Our digital environment is changing, fast. Nobody knows exactly what it’ll look like in five to ten years’ time, but we know that how we produce and share our data will change where we end up. We have to decide how to protect, enhance, and

Explainer

101: SIM Card Registration

SIM card registration allows the state to know the identity of the owner of a SIM card, and thus who is most likely making a call or sending a message. As a condition for the purchase or activation of a SIM card, the user is asked to provide personal data as well as a valid ID.

Press release

Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights Group joined other organisations across the EU to file complaints over Member States’ non-compliance with mass surveillance rulings

Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights Group have joined over 60 NGOs, community groups, and academics across the European Union to file complaints to the European Commission. The complaints call for the EU governments to stop requiring companies to store all communications data. The

Advocacy

El Derecho a la Privacidad en los Estados Unidos Mexicanos

Este informe es presentado por la Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) y Privacy International (PI). La Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) es una organización no gubernamental, sin fnes de lucro, ubicada en México, dedicada a la defensa de los derechos humanos en el entorno

News & Analysis

Australia’s metadata grab will create modern-day Stasi files

15 October 2014 The following was written by Carly Nyst, Legal Director for Privacy International, and originally appeared in the Guardian's Comment is Free section: Until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the East German state security service – the Stasi – conducted surveillance and kept files

Report

Report on the National Data Retention Laws since the CJEU’s Tele-2/Watson Judgment

This report sheds light on the current state of affairs in data retention regulation across the EU post the Tele-2/Watson judgment. Privacy International has consulted with digital rights NGOs and industry from across the European Union to survey 21 national jurisdictions (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria

Press release

New Privacy International report shows that 21 European countries are unlawfully retaining personal data

Key points Privacy International surveyed 21 EU member states' legislation on data retention and examined their compliance with fundamental human rights standards 0 out of the 21 States examined by PI are currently in compliance with these standards (as interpreted in two landmark judgements by the

Press release

Press Release: New Privacy International Report Shows That 21 European Countries Are Unlawfully Retaining Personal Data

Advocacy

Report On The National Data Retention Laws Since The CJEU’s Tele-2/Watson Judgment

Advocacy

Submission on the right to privacy in Thailand, Human Rights Committee, 119th Session

Privacy International's submission on the right to privacy in Thailand, Human Rights Committee, 119th Session. In our assessment to the Committee, national legislation governing surveillance is inadequate, unclear as to the powers, scope and capacity of state surveillance activities and thus it

Advocacy

Joint Submission on the Right to Privacy in Italy, Human Rights Committee, 119th Session

Privacy International and the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties' Joint Submission in Consideration of the Sixth Periodic Report of Italy Human Rights Committee 119th Session (6-29 March 2017). The submission brings to the attention of the Committee the ongoing concern with Italian security

News & Analysis

In Kenya, Communications Surveillance Is A Matter of Life and Death

On a hot day in Nairobi, our researcher is speaking to an officer of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The afternoon is wearing on and the conversation has turned to the presidential elections, taking place in August this year. He has just finished describing the NIS’ highly secret