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Content type: Press release
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 practice was ruled unlawful by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in two separate judgments in 2014 and 2016. The UK complaint was filed by Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights…
Content type: News & Analysis
Privacy International welcomes today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court in Carpenter v. United States, which finds that the government must generally obtain a warrant when seeking mobile phone location records. In particular, PI applauds the Court’s recognition that “[m]apping a cell phone’s location over the course of 127 days provides an all-encompassing record of the holder’s whereabouts. As with GPS information, the timestamped data provides an intimate window into a person’s…
Content type: Course Section
Communications surveillance is where a third party intercepts a communication in the course of its transmission between intended recipients. Interception includes all acts of monitoring, copying, diverting, duplicating and storing communications in the course of their transmission by or for law enforcement or intelligence agencies.[1]
When discussing communications surveillance, there are many debates, distinctions, and terms used. Because of this it is important to know what a term represents…
Content type: Course Section
CONCEPTS
Communications surveillance: Communications surveillance is the monitoring, interception, collection, preservation and retention of information that has been communicated, relayed or generated over communications networks to a group of recipients by a third party. This includes phone calls, emails, text messages, pictures, and messaging apps.
Data protection: Data protection is the law designed to protect your personal information, which is collected, processed and stored by “…
Content type: Course Section
TABLE OF METADATA PROTECTIONS
UNITED KINGDOM
s. 16 of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2012
Extra safeguards
intercepted material falls within this subsection so far only as it is selected to be read, looked at or listened to otherwise than according to a factor which—
has as its purpose, or one of its purposes, the identification of material contained in communications sent by him, or intended for him
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Smith v. Maryland 1979
"there is no…
Content type: Landing Page
Privacy International helps people across the world to understand modern aspects of privacy and surveillance. By helping people understand the threats to our rights, people can become advocates and defenders of privacy.
Content type: Press release
Privacy International (PI) has today sent an open letter to the President of Thomson Reuters Corporation asking whether he will commit to ensuring the multinational company’s products or services are not used to enforce cruel, arbitrary, and disproportionate measures, including those currently being implemented by US immigration authorities.
Documentation shows that Thomson Reuters Corporation is selling access to highly sensitive and personal data to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
Content type: News & Analysis
In order to uphold the law and keep us safe, the police can seriously interfere with a range of fundamental human rights. And so transparency and public scrutiny of their actions are essential to protect against misconduct and abuse.
So why is the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) now permitted to operate in secret?
We all have the right to seek information from most public bodies – including the police – under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. When the law was first…
Content type: Advocacy
Tanto la privacidad como la seguridad son esenciales para proteger a los individuos, su autonomía y su dignidad. El detrimento de la privacidad implica el detrimento de la seguridad de los individuos, sus dispositivos y la infraestructura de la que forman parte. La gente necesita privacidad para sentirse libremente segura y proteger su información, así como para gozar plenamente de otros derechos.
Una cantidad cada vez mayor de Gobiernos en el mundo está recurriendo también al hackeo para…
Content type: News & Analysis
While the worlds’ attention, the world’s humour, including a dedicated playlist of 89 songs on Spotify, were on the coming into force of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25th May, the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) that received Royal Assent only two days previously had barely received a few column inches in the mainstream press.
However, the substance of the debates in parliament during the passage of this Act has received wide…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy and security are both essential to protecting individuals, including their autonomy and dignity. Undermining privacy undermines the security of individuals, their devices and the broader infrastructure. People need privacy to freely secure themselves, their information, and fully enjoy other rights.
A growing number of governments around the world are embracing hacking to facilitate their surveillance activities. When governments hack for surveillance purposes, they seek to…
Content type: Advocacy
Introduction
Why We Are So Concerned about Government Hacking for Surveillance
Scope of Our Safeguards
1. Legality
2. Security and Integrity of Systems
3. Necessity and Proportionality
4. Judicial Authorisation
5. Integrity of information
6. Notification
7. Destruction and Return of Data
8. Oversight and Transparency
9. Extraterritoriality
10. Effective Remedy
Commentary on each
1. Legality
2. Security and Integrity of Systems
3. Necessity and Proportionality
4.…
Content type: Press release
Privacy International (PI) has today urged England Manager Gareth Southgate to bolster his defence ahead of the World Cup in Russia, which kicks off next Thursday. PI sent Southgate an anti-surveillance 'Faraday cage' phone pouch and a briefing on his vulnerability to potential spying by rival football managers and foreign governments intent on giving their team a competitive advantage. If rival governments routinely hack and intercept each other's communications, what's stopping rival teams'…
Content type: Press release
On the five year anniversary of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaking a massive trove of classified information that has since transformed our understanding of government mass surveillance, Dr Gus Hosein, Executive Director of Privacy International said:
“Is it enough for your government to tell you ‘we’re keeping you safe, but we’re not going to tell you how’? Edward Snowden asked himself this profoundly important question five years ago. We’re thankful he did.
His decision to expose the…
Content type: News & Analysis
We found the image here.
As the hype around the EU General Data Protection Regulation’s entry into force begins to die down, confidentiality of digital communications in Europe is facing a new challenge.
On one side, companies are lobbying to prevent the finalisation of the proposal for a new e-privacy regulation to protect privacy of communications and prevent unauthorised access to the data stored on devices, and the tracking of individual’s behaviour online.
On the other, a group…
Content type: Advocacy
Social media, which can include a wide range of online platforms and applications, can be revealing and sensitive, making any collection or retention highly invasive. The effect would be unjustified intrusion into the private lives of those affected, undermining their freedom of speech and affecting everyone in their networks, including US citizens.
By normalising the practice internationally, other state authorities may reciprocate by demanding social media handles of US citizens,…
Content type: Advocacy
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 digital. Privacy International (PI) es una organización no gubernamental sin fnes de lucro ubicada en Londres enfocada en la defensa, promoción y protección del derecho a la privacidad alrededor del…
Content type: Advocacy
This Universal Periodic Review (“UPR”) stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International and Paradigm Initiative.
Together Privacy International and Paradigm Initiative wish to bring their concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in Nigeria before the Human Rights Council for consideration in Nigeria’s upcoming review at the 31st session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.
Content type: Advocacy
This stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International (PI) and the Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA).
Privacy International and the Jordan Open Source Association wish to bring concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to privacy for consideration in Jordan’s upcoming review at the 31st session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.
Content type: Press release
In a remarkable development in Privacy International's four year legal battle against the UK Government's powers to hack phones and computers on a massive scale, the UK Supreme Court has agreed to hear the London-based charity's case in December 2018.
Privacy International's case stems from a decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (a specialised court set up to hear complaints against government surveillance, including surveillance carried out by the UK intelligence agencies) finding…
Content type: News & Analysis
En el 2011 se liquidó el DAS. Las violaciones, excesos y abusos de la inteligencia estatal que comenzaban por la intimidad y terminaban con la vida de los ciudadanos habían producido condenas judiciales a varios exdirectores: claro indicador de que se necesitaba un cambio. Siete años ha tenido el Estado colombiano para ordenar la casa y esta semana someterá sus récords de derechos humanos al examen de los miembros de Naciones Unidas. La evaluación analizará, entre otros…
Content type: News & Analysis
Los frecuentes escándalos sobre el abuso de la vigilancia estatal en actividades de inteligencia, la exagerada obligación legal que tienen las empresas de telefonía de retener los datos de las comunicaciones de sus usuarios por cinco años o la manera como se diluye el concepto de privacidad en el Código de Policía serán parte del examen que se haga en el seno de la ONU sobre la forma como Colombia cumple sus compromisos de derechos humanos.
Dirigido por los Estados y con el auspicio del…
Content type: News & Analysis
In the lead-up to the 30th session of the Universal Periodic Review which took place on 10 May 2018, Fundación Karisma, a partner organisation in the Privacy International Network, joined a coalition of civil society groups in Colombia to raise more awareness about the country's human rights record.
As part of the joint effort, the coalition produced factsheets on various human rights in the Colombian context, including the right to privacy. It is available in both English and Spanish.
Content type: Press release
Privacy International (PI) has today sent a detailed report and list of questions to the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, following her admission that failures in the UK system governing intelligence sharing with international partners helped facilitate the detention, retention and “appalling treatment” of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar.
Yesterday, in a letter written to Belhaj and Boudchar and read out in the UK parliament, Prime Minister May made the extraordinary admission that “The…
Content type: Report
The use of biometric technology in political processes, i.e. the use of peoples’ physical and behavioural characteristics to authenticate claimed identity, has swept across the African region, with 75% of African countries adopting one form or other of biometric technology in their electoral processes. Despite high costs, the adoption of biometrics has not restored the public’s trust in the electoral process, as illustrated by post-election violence and legal challenges to the results of…
Content type: Examples
Behind the colourful bicycles and games rooms, Silicon Valley tech giants operate a strict code of secrecy, relying on a combination of cultural pressure, digital and physical surveillance, legal threats, and restricted stock to prevent and detect not only criminal activity and intellectual property theft but also employees and contracts who speak publicly about their working conditions. Apple has long been known for requiring employees to sign project-specific non-disclosure agreements (NDAs…
Content type: Examples
In a draft January 2018 report obtained by Foreign Policy and produced at the request of US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, the Department of Homeland Security called for continuous vetting of Sunni Muslim immigrants deemed to have "at-risk" profiles. Based on studying 25 terrorist attacks within the US between 2001 and December 2017, the report also suggested that immigrants to the US should be tracked on a long-term basis. Implementing the recommendations…
Content type: Examples
The first signs of the combination of AI and surveillance are beginning to emerge. In December 2017, the digital surveillance manufacturer IC Realtime, launched a web and app platform named Ella that uses AI to analyse video feeds and make them instantly searchable - like a Google for CCTV. Company CEO Matt Sailor demonstrated a version of Ella hooked up to 40 cameras trained on an industrial park that was able to respond with relevant footage to searches such as "a man wearing red" or "UPS…
Content type: Examples
As a gift in 2012, the Chinese government built the African Union's $200 million Addis Ababa headquarters, where African ministers and heads of state meet twice a year to discuss major continental issues. In 2017, Le Monde Afrique discovered that the building's computer systems incorporated an undocumented portal that grants Chinese administrators access to the entire system. After the surveillance was exposed, the AU acquired its own servers and declined China's offer to configure them; it…