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Content type: News & Analysis
In a recent trip to Colombia, Privacy International learned that the Colombian mobile phone network does not use any form of encryption. In this sense, Colombian communications are stuck in the 1990s, where cryptography was not yet widespread, and was still tightly controlled by governments who feared its spread could threaten their capabilities to conduct surveillance.
The issue of encryption on mobile phones though is not unique to Colombia. The Director of the FBI has been on a media blitz…
Content type: News & Analysis
This is a guest piece. It does not necessarily reflect the views or position of Privacy International
To open a bank account in Pakistan, to get a new driver license or passport or to activate a SIM card, you need to present a computerized national identity card. These cards are about more than just proving identity; they are essential to getting on with your day-to-day life.
So what happens when you lose your identity to fraud?
Pakistan is one of the few nations that has registered…
Content type: News & Analysis
This year, an advanced surveillance system called the "Platform for Unified Monitoring and Analysis" will come online in Colombia. Frustrated with the the previous system, Esperanza, which only monitored telecommunications activity, the Colombian authorities turned to PUMA (Plataforma Única de Monitoreo y Análisis), a system that will allow them to monitor both telecommunications traffic and IP traffic in one source. The system, now based on Police property in Western Bogota, will now be…
Content type: News & Analysis
The government of Pakistan is proposing a new law that significantly threatens privacy rights, in a blatant attempt to establish a legal regime containing broad powers when it comes to obtaining, retaining, and sharing data obtained through criminal investigations, including communications data.
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2014, contains worrying aspects that threaten the right to privacy, including a provision that would permit unregulated information sharing with foreign…
Content type: News & Analysis
Privacy International's partner organisation, Bytes for All, has filed a complaint against the Government, decrying the human rights violations inherent in such extensive surveillance and demonstrating how the UK's mass surveillance operations and its policies have a disproportionate impact on those who live outside the country.
Bytes for All, a Pakistan-based human rights organization, filed its complaint in the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the same venue in which Privacy…