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Content type: Advocacy
Our joint stakeholder report made the following recommendations: Strengthen the implementation of Data Protection Act, 2019 and make clear in law and in relevant guidelines that personal data from the electoral register which has been made accessible is still subject to, and protected, by data protection law, including for onward processing.Ensure that there is an effective legal and regulatory framework in place to guarantee a human rights-based approach in the design and deployment of…
Content type: Advocacy
Our submission made the following recommendations to the Committee regarding the Kenya:Review and amend the proposed digital identity system, the Maisha Numba, to ensure it aligns with Kenya’s national and international human rights obligations in its design and implementation, and adopts legal, policy and technical safeguards to prevent exclusion and marginalisation.Ensure that measures taken to develop digital public infrastructures abide by Kenya’s national and international human rights…
Content type: Advocacy
In Colombia, the government utilises the National System for the Identification of Potential Social Program Beneficiaries, Sisbén (Sistema de Identificación de Potenciales Beneficiarios de Programas Sociales), a classification algorithm that ranks individuals by income level to determine access to social assistance programs. The implementation of this algorithm is problematic, and our submission raises the following issues:Sisbén is exclusionary by design. Its inefficiency in accurately…
Content type: Long Read
Table of contentsIntroductionWeighing the (potential) benefits with the risksPrivacy rights and the right to healthThe right to healthPrivacy, data-protection and health dataThe right to health in the digital contextWhy the drive for digitalImproved access to healthcarePatient empowerment and remote monitoringBut these same digital solutions carry magnified risks…More (and more connected) dataData leaks and breachesData sharing without informed consentProfiling and manipulationTools are not…
Content type: Advocacy
What's happening with digital ID in Kenya?In 2018, the Kenyan government tried to introduce the Huduma Namba project. Among other things, the project established the National Identity Integrated Management System (NIIMS); a centralised database purposed to consolidate all government records about an individual into a single ID system. In April 2019, PI submitted an expert affidavit challenging the NIIMS. In 2020, the High Court of Kenya acknowledged several key issues raised by PI in its…
Content type: Advocacy
In the last few years, electoral processes and related activities have undergone significant changes, driven by the development of digital technologies.The use of personal data has redefined political campaigning and enabled the proliferation of political advertising tailor-made for audiences sharing specific characteristics or personalised to the individual. These new practices, combined with the platforms that enable them, create an environment that facilitate the manipulation of opinion and…
Content type: Advocacy
Our submission focussed on the evolving impacts of (i) automated decision-making, (ii) the digitisation of social protection programmes, (iii) sensitive data-processing and (iv) assistive technologies in the experiences and rights of people with disabilities.We called on the OHCHR to:Examine the impact that growing digitisation and the use of new and emerging technologies across sectors has upon the rights of persons with disabilities;Urge states to ensure that the deployment of digital…
Content type: Advocacy
The European Union Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) will regulate the development and use of ‘high-risk’ AI, and aims to promote the uptake of ‘trustworthy AI’ whilst protecting the rights of people affected by AI systems.
However, in its original proposal, the EU AI Act does not adequately address and prevent the harms stemming from the use of AI in the migration context. Whilst states and institutions often promote AI in terms of benefits for wider society, for marginalised communities,…
Content type: Advocacy
We, the undersigned civil society organizations and individuals, urge the World Bank and other international organizations to take immediate steps to cease activities that promote harmful models of digital identification systems (digital ID).
The signatories of this letter are located in different countries, work with diverse communities, and bring a wide range of expertise. Among this group, there are many shared concerns and similar experiences documenting the harmful impacts…
Content type: Advocacy
Read in English
Nosotros, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y los individuos abajo firmantes, instamos al Banco Mundial y a otras organizaciones internacionales a que tomen medidas inmediatas para cesar las actividades que promueven modelos perjudiciales de sistemas de identificación digital (ID digital).
Los firmantes de esta carta se encuentran en diferentes países, trabajan con diversas comunidades y aportan una amplia gama de conocimientos. Entre este grupo, hay muchas…
Content type: News & Analysis
Privacy International (PI) has today filed complaints with the Information Commissioner (ICO) and Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) against the UK Home Office's use of GPS ankle tags to monitor migrants released on immigration bail. This policy and practice represents a seismic change in the surveillance of migrants in the UK. PI was first alerted to this scheme by organisations such as Bail for Immigration Detainees, an independent charity that exists to challenge immigration detention in the…
Content type: Advocacy
Today, PI filed a complaint with the Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) in relation to quality and accuracy issues in satellite-enabled Global Positioning System (GPS) tags used for Electronic Monitoring of subjects released from immigration detention (GPS tags). We are concerned there may be systemic failures in relation to the quality of data extracted from tags, processed and interpreted for use in investigations and criminal prosecutions.
The GPS tags are used by the Home Office to…
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: 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: 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: Long Read
For over 20 years with the start of the first use of ICTs in the 1990s, we have seen a digital revolution in the health sector. The Covid-19 pandemic significantly accelerated the digitalisation of the health sector, and it illustrates how fast this uptake can be and what opportunities can emerge; but also, importantly, the risks that it involves.
As we've said many times before, whilst technologies can be part of the solution to tackle some socio-economic and political challenges facing our…
Content type: Advocacy
Our environment is increasingly populated by devices connected to the Internet, from computers and mobile phones to sound systems and TVs to fridges, kettles, toys, or domestic alarms. There has been research into the negative safety and privacy impacts of inadequate security provided by the software in such devices (such as the creation of large scale botnets). This is also the case with outdated security, a risk enabled by software support periods that are shorter than a product’s usable life…
Content type: Long Read
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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.
Telemedicine describes the vast range of applications and technologies used to provide and manage healthcare remotely.
Telemedicine as its most basic refers to the transmission of data from a patient to a healthcare professional through a range of electronic…
Content type: Advocacy
Some of the most vulnerable groups in Mexico are amongst the groups at risk from a draft General Population Law that creates a biometric “Unique Digital Identity Card” (CUID), argue civil society organisations. The proposed law has now reached the senate, and has raised serious concerns from civil society organisations. Led by our global partner in Mexico Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D), PI along with 25 organisations have signed a joint letter to the members of the senate,…
Content type: Advocacy
On 6 August 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published its technical specifications and implementation guidance for “Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status” (DDCC:VS) following months of consultations. As governments around the world are deploying their own Covid-19 certificates, guidance from the global health agency was expected to set a global approach, and one that prioritises public health. As such, we would expect the WHO to identify what these…
Content type: News & Analysis
We have set out our understanding of the NFI’s current functioning here.
The National Fraud Initiative is a data-matching exercise overseen by the Cabinet Office which allows a range of public and private sector entities to access personal data, exclusively for the purposes of preventing and detecting fraud. A current government consultation suggests expanding the NFI to include four new, wide-ranging purposes:
Data-matching to assist in the prevention and detection of crime (other than…
Content type: News & Analysis
The “EU Trust Fund for Stability and Addressing Root Causes of Irregular Migration and Displaced Persons in Africa” (EUTF for Africa) isn’t exactly headline news (and nor does it exactly roll off the tongue), but its influence is vast and will be felt for decades to come for millions of people across Africa.
Set up in the wake of the 2015 ‘migration crisis’ in Europe and largely made up of money earmarked for development aid (80% of its budget comes from development and humanitarian aid funds…
Content type: Long Read
Immunity Passports have become a much hyped tool to cope with this pandemic and the economic crisis. Essentially, with immunity passports those who are 'immune' to the virus would have some kind of certified document - whether physical or digital. This 'passport' would give them rights and privileges that other members of the community do not have.
This is yet another example of a crisis-response that depends on technology, as we saw with contact-tracing apps. And it is also yet another…
Content type: Report
SUMMARY
In the UK, local authorities* are looking at people’s social media accounts, such as Facebook, as part of their intelligence gathering and investigation tactics in areas such as council tax payments, children’s services, benefits and monitoring protests and demonstrations.
In some cases, local authorities will go so far as to use such information to make accusations of fraud and withhold urgently needed support from families who are living in extreme poverty.
THE PROBLEM
Since 2011…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the consultation on the Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development. Valuable lessons have been learnt, particularly in the last few years, on the serious consequences of identity systems. We have seen challenges in court that have found that key provisions of these systems are incompatible with the right to privacy enshrined in constitutions. We have seen civil society organisations highlighting the serious risks…
Content type: Long Read
Commercial interests seem to often overshadow the EU’s stance as a global privacy leader. After looking at Europes's shady funds to border forces in the Sahel area, Niger's new biometric voting system, and attempts to dismantle smugglers networks powered by Europe's gifts of surveillance, freelance journalist Giacomo Zandonini looks at the battle for data protection and digital rights in the continent.
What do a teenage labourer on a marijuana farm in Lesotho, a…
Content type: Long Read
Background
Kenya’s National Integrated Identity Management Scheme (NIIMS) is a biometric database of the Kenyan population, that will eventually be used to give every person in the country a unique “Huduma Namba” for accessing services. This system has the aim of being the “single point of truth”, a biometric population register of every citizen and resident in the country, that then links to multiple databases across government and, potentially, the private sector.
NIIMS was introduced…
Content type: Long Read
This piece was written by Aayush Rathi and Ambika Tandon, who are policy officers at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in India. The piece was originally published on the website Economic Policy Weekly India here.
In order to bring out certain conceptual and procedural problems with health monitoring in the Indian context, this article posits health monitoring as surveillance and not merely as a “data problem.” Casting a critical feminist lens, the historicity of surveillance practices…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International welcomes this opportunity to submit comments to the FATF consultation. The draft recommendation is an improvement on existing guidance that we have reviewed.
We also welcome the calls of the FATF for accommodations that will relieve burdens upon individuals who are being excluded from the financial sector, as a result of the FATF’s prior recommendations.
PI believes that identity systems must empower people. The initial question surrounding the development of any…