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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
Data protection and privacy
Once you’ve assessed where the data comes from, have you assessed whether the data collection or sharing is lawful?
Is this lawful basis explicitly stated in the documentation of the partnership?
Is the data being collected in ways that people could reasonably expect?
Have the data controllers considered the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people whose data will be collected?
What will the consequences be of people’s data being…
Content type: Report
Privacy International’s submissions for the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration inspection of the Home Office Satellite Tracking Service Programme
The Home Office have introduced 24/7 electronic monitoring and collection of the location data of migrants via GPS ankle tags. This seismic change cannot be overstated. The use of GPS tags and intention to use location data, kept for six years after the tag is removed, in immigration decision-making goes far beyond the mere…
Content type: Video
Links
Josoor International Solidarity’s website is at https://www.josoor.net
No Name Kitchen’s website https://www.nonamekitchen.org
Border Violence Monitoring Network’s Website is at https://www.borderviolence.eu
Their reports documenting violence and trends in Greece and the Balkans route are at https://www.borderviolence.eu/category/monthly-report/
Lighthouse Report’s investigations on pushbacks in the Aegean are available at https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/…
Content type: Advocacy
In line with WHO's commitment to a human rights-based approach to health, Privacy International believes the following elements procedural and substantive elements must be included:
Open, inclusive and multi-stakeholder process
The drafting and negotiation process of this international instrument must allow for the meaningful participation of a wide range of civil society organisations (CSOs) and reflect the commitment from the WHO and Member States to receive and respond to CSOs…
Content type: Press release
Today, the High Court ruled that the Home Secretary acted unlawfully and breached human rights and data protection laws by operating a secret, blanket policy of seizing, retaining and extracting data from the mobile phones of asylum seekers arriving by small boat.
This claim for judicial review was brought by three asylum seeking claimants: HM represented by Gold Jennings, and KA and MH represented by Deighton Pierce Glynn. The Claimants, like thousands of others arriving by small boat, all…
Content type: News & Analysis
Background
Today judgment has been handed down in the landmark case of R (HM and MA and KH) v Secretary of State for the Home Department.
This is a Judicial Review decision concerning the UK Home Office’s secret and blanket policy of seizing mobile phones of all migrants who arrived to the UK by small boat between April 2020 and November 2020, and extracting data from all phones. PI was a third party intervener in the case.
The case revealed that migrants were searched on arrival at Tug Haven…
Content type: Long Read
This piece is a part of a collection of research that demonstrates how data-intensive systems that are built to deliver reproductive and maternal healthcare are not adequately prioritising equality and privacy.
Digital health apps of all kinds are being used by people to better understand their bodies, their fertility, and to access health information. But there are concerns that the information people both knowingly and unknowing provide to the app, which can be very personal health…
Content type: Explainer
Introduction/Background
Electronic tags have been a key part of criminal justice offender management for over 20 years, being used in the United States since the mid 1980’s and in the UK and some other commonwealth countries since 2003. In 2021 the UK introduced GPS tagging for immigration bail.
The tag is predominantly used to curtail the liberties of individuals. For those on criminal bail its intended use includes managing return into communities while deterring reoffending.
As we explore…
Content type: Long Read
In a roundtable available on YouTube, co-hosted with Garden Court Chambers, Privacy International brought together immigration law practitioners to discuss how they’ve used privacy and data protection law to seek information or redress for their clients.
Index:
1. UK Border 2025
2. Super-complaint and judicial review challenge to data sharing
3. Mobile phone seizure and extraction
4. Freedom of Information Act requests
The dystopian future: UK Border 2025
To set the scene on how the…
Content type: News & Analysis
In a ruling handed down on 14 October 2021 by the High Court of Kenya in relation to an application filed by Katiba Institute calling for a halt to the rollout of the Huduma card in the absence of a data impact assessment, the Kenyan High Court found that the Data Protection Act applied retrospectively.
Background to the case
Huduma Namba as initially proposed
In January 2019, the Kenyan Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act No. 18 of 2018 came into effect, introducing a raft of amendments…
Content type: Advocacy
The role that personal data plays in political campaigns https://privacyinternational.org/learn/data-and-elections and the risks of data abuse and exploitation only entered into the public discourse a few years ago, when Cambridge Analytica became a household name thanks to several scandals over the course of 2017 and 2018.
Since then, we have seen a flurry of initiatives that have helped shed light on the otherwise very opaque practices of digital campaigning. There have been public…
Content type: Guide step
The information you share on WhatsApp can be very revealing. Once installed on a device, the app potentially has access to information such as your location, contact information, and media stored on the same device.
Your WhatsApp app generates a lot of data that can also be stored on your device and elsewhere. It’s important for you to be able to understand the types of data that apps like WhatsApp generate. Government agencies may seek access to this data through at least two routes: they…
Content type: News & Analysis
2022 will see a raft of high tech surveillance tools emerging in the UK government’s arsenal, which will further entrench a ‘hostile environment’ for migrants. Compounding this further, immigration officers will increasingly be using digital forensic tools such as 'mobile phone extraction' under a veil of secrecy. This raises serious concerns about overreach, misuse and abuse of power, the actual quality and integrity of the data they gather, and independent oversight of these powers. But it…
Content type: Case Study
Overview
Estonia is widely considered one of the most digitally advanced countries in the world. Its e-ID is the gateway through which e-citizens are able to access most public services. Estonia's e-ID is both designed and operated by a collection of private companies, and overseen by the Police and Border Guard agency.
X-Road® (implemented in Estonia as X-tee) is the free and open-source data exchange layer which provides a standardised method for transferring information between the data…
Content type: Long Read
This piece is a part of a collection of research that demonstrates how data-intensive systems that are built to deliver reproductive and maternal healthcare are not adequately prioritising equality and privacy.
What are they?
Short Message Services (SMS) are being used in mobile health (MHealth) initiatives which aim to deliver crucial information to expecting and new mothers. These initiatives are being implemented in developing countries experiencing a large percentage of maternal and…