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Content type: News & Analysis
The relationship between privacy and access to abortion care
In 1973, in the state of Texas, it was a criminal offence to “procure or attempt” an abortion except if the purpose was “saving the life of the mother.” This law was enacted in 1854 by the Texas state legislature, and was part of a wave of provisions criminalising access to abortion care that was gaining ground across the U.S in the mid-1800s. It is worth highlighting that these laws were being passed at a time when women in the U.S…
Content type: Long Read
In the wake of the recent news of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the ruling of Roe v Wade in its ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, headlines have been dominated by conversations around privacy and fears of how the criminalisation of abortion care and surveillance by law enforcement will play out in a tech driven world.
This discussion is increasingly important as governments move towards digitising their healthcare systems and as more individuals choose to…
Content type: Long Read
The global COVID-19 health crisis not only induced a public health crisis, but has led to severe social, economic and educational crises which have laid bare any pre-existing gaps in social protection policies and frameworks. Measures identified as necessary for an effective public health response such as lockdowns have impacted billions workers and people's ability to sustain their livelihood worldwide, with countries seeing unprecedented levels of applications for welfare benefits support,…
Content type: Advocacy
In our submission we outline our concerns with the industry as a result of extensive technical research and complaints taken to data protection authorities in Europe as a result.
Data brokers must specifically be included in "actors in scope."
We recommend that "data brokers" are specifically included in the list of "actors in scope". A data broker is a company that collects, buys and sells personal data and this is often how they earn their primary revenue. It is a term that is entering…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International (PI) welcomes the call of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants to assess the human rights impact of current and newly established border management measures with the aim of identifying effective ways to prevent human rights violations at international borders, both on land and at sea.
The issues highlighted in the call for submissions are ones that PI has been investigating, reporting and monitoring as part of our campaigns demanding a human rights…
Content type: Examples
Ukraine and Russia are both weaponising facial recognition - but Russia is using it to hunt down anti-war protesters, holding and sometimes torturing anyone who refuses to be photographed, while Ukraine is using software donated by Clearview AI to help find Russian infiltrators at checkpoints, identify the dead and reunite families. Russia's widespread surveillance means that activists can be followed and arrested anywhere. In an approved, peaceful anti-government rally in Moscow in 2019,…
Content type: Examples
Footage captured by Bloomberg shows that police are arresting anti-war protesters in Russia and scrolling through their phones.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-03-07/russian-police-search-protesters-phones-make-arrests-video
Writer: Kommersant
Publication: Bloomberg TV
Publication date: 2022-03-07
Content type: Examples
Based on a draft methodology from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, Kommersant business daily reports that Rostec's data subsidiary, Natsionalny Tsentr Informatizatsii, is developing software that will use machine learning to detect and prevent mass unrest. The software will analyse news reports, social media postings, public transport data, and video surveillance footage; if it fails to prevent mass unrest it is expected to direct the crowd's movements to stop it from escalating. The…
Content type: Examples
The Kommersant reports that Russia's Rostec State Corporation is developing a new AI-powered anti-riot surveillance system that uses biometrics-powered cameras and can search social media networks and other publicly accessible data and intends to deploy the new system by the end of 2022. The behaviou analysis software is being developed as part of the Safe City project under the aegis of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which intends to spend 97 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) deploying Safe…
Content type: Examples
The energy company Cuadrilla used Facebook to surveil anti-fracking protesters in Blackpool and forwarded the gathered intelligence to Lancashire Police, which arrested more than 450 protesters at Cuadrilla's Preston New Road site over a period of three years in a policing operation that cost more than £12 million. Legal experts have called the relationship between fracking companies and the police "increasingly unhealthy" and called on the ICO and the Independent Office for Police Conduct to…
Content type: Examples
Emails obtained by EFF show that the Los Angeles Police Department contacted Amazon Ring owners specifically asking for footage of protests against racist police violence that took place across the US in the summer of 2020. LAPD signed a formal partnership with Ring and its associated "Neighbors" app in May 2019. Requests for Ring footage typically include the name of the detective, a description of the incident under investigation, and a time period. If enough people in a neighbourhood…
Content type: Press release
Meta, the largest provider of social media sites and display advertising in the UK, acquired GIPHY, the largest provider of GIFs. In its report of 30 November 2021 the CMA found that the completed merger between Meta and GIPHY will give rise to a substantial lessening of competition.
The CAT confirmed the CMA's assessment and dismissed all but one of Meta’s appeal grounds, paving the way for Meta to sell GIPHY, as demanded by the CMA.
PI was granted permission to intervene in this case, one of…
Content type: Advocacy
Despite repeated recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly to review, amend or enact national laws to ensure respect and protection of the right to privacy, national laws are often inadequate and do not regulate, limit or prohibit surveillance powers of government agencies as well as data exploitative practices of companies.
Even when laws are in place, they are seldom enforced. In fact PI notes how it is often only following legal challenges in national or…
Content type: Long Read
Imagine your performance at work was assessed directly from the amount of e-mails sent, the amount of time consumed editing a document, or the time spent in meetings or even moving your mouse. This may sound ludicrous but your boss might be doing exactly that. There are more and more stories emerging of people being called into meetings to justify gaps in their work only to find out their boss had been watching them work without their knowledge.
The Covid-19 global pandemic has reshuffled the…
Content type: Press release
To mark 10 years of the Home Office's hostile environment, a coalition of charities last night projected a vast message on the Home Office's Lunar House building in South London, to draw attention to Home Secretary Priti Patel's plans to GPS ankle tag thousands of migrants - a coercive, costly, and dehumanising measure.
As part of a week of events to mark 10 years of the "hostile environment", a set of policies designed to make life difficult for what…
Content type: News & Analysis
Last night, PI, Migrants Organise and Bail For Immigration Detainees joined forces to shine a light on the enduring plight of migrants in the UK who are subject to hardline and dehumanising Home Office policies.
Our joint light projection marked the 10 year anniversary of former Home Secretary Theresa’s May’s infamous 'hostile environment', a policy purposefully cruel that includes indefinite detention of migrants and refugees.
The past decade has also seen the steady creep of data sharing…
Content type: Video
Links
A resource for teachers we've been working with Ina on (consultation draft at the moment so please get in touch if you have thoughts!)
More about critical data literacy
The database of resources for teaching about big data and algorithmic systems Ina mentioned
PI's guides to help you and your loved ones protect yourselves online
Content type: Advocacy
The proposal seeks to impose mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence on companies of a certain size that operate in certain sectors.
Our submissions address the very limited personal and material scope of the current draft of the Directive, which is unlikely to subject the most problematic technology and surveillance companies to the new due diligence obligations.
Content type: Key Resources
A. Risks to consider
Defamation: The law of defamation protects a person’s reputation against unjustified interference. You may get sued for defamation by a private actor you make allegations against. Defamation laws differ between jurisdictions and the burden of proof might be entirely on you.
Unlawful obtention of information: Depending on your jurisdiction, certain types of investigations might be in contravention of the law (such as publishing leaked information or hacking).…
Content type: Key Resources
The first step when looking at technology is to find basic information about it - to define and categorise it. Looking at the Wikipedia page of a given technology is often a good starting point and will help you clarify what is implied within a technology (for example for Facial recognition). This is particularly useful when there is no specific technology that is mentioned in the partnership or when you are looking at a tender. You might also want to check the company’s marketing materials to…
Content type: Key Resources
Obtaining adequate information about a public-private partnership is often difficult, especially when sensitive areas of government are involved, such as intelligence and law enforcement. Information about such activities is often purposefully withheld from the public and guarded by excessive laws and punishments.
But if it is safe to access them, there are many methods and resources out there which can help. Many of these sources are already readily available online, while others require desk…
Content type: Key Resources
The UN Guiding Principles are a set of guidelines for states and companies to prevent, address and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations. The UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles in its resolution 17/4 of 16 June 2011.
The UN Guiding Principles provide the authoritative global standard for action to safeguard human rights in a business context. As such, in the course of an investigation, they can be used to assess the compliance of a…
Content type: Key Resources
There are no universally recognised data protection standards, but regional and international bodies have created internationally-agreed-upon codes, practices, decisions, recommendations, and policy instruments. The most significant instruments are:
The Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (No. 108), 1981 as amended in 2018;
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines on the Protection…
Content type: Key Resources
Public-private partnerships might very well involve a technology that is well-known and already widely deployed in other contexts, but it might also be a ground for innovation and novelty.
We can identify two main types of innovation:
A new technology that isn’t widely used or hasn’t been deployed in real world context (outside of a lab or a research paper);
A new set of features added to an existing technology which greatly expand its performances and capabilities.
Another type of “…
Content type: Key Resources
You should check that certain documents and processes are in place so that the contracting state and company are accountable, that there is proper oversight, and adequate redress mechanisms. Note that you should consider the entire life cycle of the partnership. First at the procurement stage, has the procurement process for this contract followed local or international procurement rules? And are those procurement rules adequate? Has there been adequate transparency throughout the procurement…
Content type: Key Resources
i. Added Literature review
There are several resources available that simplify and popularise complex technologies, starting with Wikipedia. Other resources can be tremendously useful even with little to no technical background, such as semi-specialised press. See for example:
MIT Technology review (e.g. quantum computing)
ArsTechnica, (e.g. on NFTS)
PC Mag (e.g. on 5G Mag)
Academic papers are also an avenue to find information although the language might be less accessible without…