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Content type: News & Analysis
21st April 2020
A few weeks ago, its name would probably have been unknown to you. Amidst the covid-19 crisis and the lockdown it caused, Zoom has suddenly become the go-to tool for video chat and conference calling, whether it’s a business meeting, a drink with friends, or a much needed moment with your family. This intense rise in use has been financially good to the company, but it also came with a hefty toll on its image and serious scrutiny on its privacy and security practices.
While Zoom already had a…
Content type: News & Analysis
2nd October 2013
The Zimbabwean government extended its reach into the private lives of its citizens this week by promulgating a new law establishing a central database of information about all mobile telephone users in the country. The Statutory Instrument 142 of 2013 on Postal and Telecommunications (Subscriber Registration) Regulations 2013, gazetted last Friday, raises new challenges to the already embattled rights to privacy and free expression in Zimbabwe, increasing the potential that the repressive…
Content type: News & Analysis
1st December 2017
13 June 2016
"State capacity to conduct surveillance may depend on the extent to which business enterprises cooperate with or resist such surveillance” notes the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression in his report on the role of the private sector to respect human rights in the digital age. The Special Rapporteur will present its findings and recommendations to the Human Rights Council on Thursday.
It is no longer sufficient for companies to simply point the finger at intelligence and…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th November 2012
One of the first things that strikes you about the chaotic East African metropolises of Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe is the blanket of adverts for mobile phone companies that covers them, from the walls of the immigration hall at Harare airport, to the rickety shacks that line the dusty streets of Kampala. Where official signage is unavailable, DIY versions are painted onto the roofs and walls of houses and small businesses. Stores selling mobile phones are rarely more than a few short steps away…
Content type: News & Analysis
19th November 2012
Privacy International asked lawyers, activists, researchers and hackers at Defcon 2012 about some of the debates that thrive at the intersection between law, technology and privacy. We also wanted to know why privacy matters to them, and what they thought the future of privacy looked like. This video is a result of those conversations.
Featuring Cory Doctorow, Kade Crockford, Jameel Jaffer, Dan Kaminsky, Chris Soghoian, Marcia Hoffman, Moxie Marlinspike, Phil Zimmerman, Hanni Fakhoury and Eli…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th May 2012
In Homer’s Iliad, the gods Juno and Saturn have great desire for each other, and Saturn wishes to lie with Juno on the top of Mount Ida. Juno protests Saturn’s advances, exclaiming: “What if one of the ever-living gods should see us sleeping together, and tell the others? It would be such a scandal that when I had risen from your embraces I could never show myself inside your house again”. Luckily for Saturn, Juno knows of a place with “good strong doors” where they can meet secretly and…
Content type: News & Analysis
30th November 2011
Last year, Index on Censorship published an interview with Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president David Drummond. The company was still reeling from the aftermath of the news that an attack had been launched on Gmail from China. Drummond proposed that free speech needed to be part of the international agenda at multilateral and bilateral trade discussions, just like piracy. 'Western governments whose economies certainly benefit from the internet sector should make this happen,'…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th October 2015
Photo: Flickr/Elvert Barnes. Some rights reserved.
In the wider civil society space, the opportunities for travel come thick and fast. From the multi-stakeholder perspective, the Internet Governance Forum will be held during November in João Pessoa, Brazil. There is the Stockholm Internet Forum in, naturally, Stockholm. In freedom of expression there is the International Freedom of Expression Exchange Strategy Conference in Trinidad & Tobago, while End Violence Against Women International'…
Content type: Press release
26th March 2015
The UN's top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, today has passed a landmark resolution endorsing the appointment of an independent expert on the right to privacy. For the first time in the UN's history, an individual will be appointed to monitor, investigate and report on privacy issues and alleged violations in States across the world.
The resolution, which appoints a Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy for an initial period of three years, was spearheaded by Germany and…
Content type: News & Analysis
16th July 2014
Today’s report on the right to privacy in the digital age by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, commissioned by the General Assembly in December 2013, marks an historic turning point in the international discourse around privacy and surveillance.
Privacy International believes the report will dramatically change the international conversation on the implications of surveillance and intelligence for human rights. Most importantly, it puts beyond doubt that the very existence of mass…
Content type: News & Analysis
1st April 2014
In response to a consultation being undertaken by the UN in accordance with December’s General Assembly resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age, Privacy International today called on the United Nations to recognise that mass surveillance is incompatible with human rights.
The submission to the Office of the High Commissioner to Human Rights confronts some of the biggest challenges to the right to privacy in the digital age, debunks some of the justifications put forth by the Five…
Content type: News & Analysis
2nd February 2018
7 October 2013
The following is an English version of an article in the September issue of Cuestión de Derechos, written by Privacy International's Head of International Advocacy, Carly Nyst.
To read the whole article (in Spanish), please go here.
The Chinese government installs software that monitors and censors certain anti-government websites. Journalists and human rights defenders from Bahrain to Morocco have their phones tapped and their emails read by security services. Facebook takes…
Content type: News & Analysis
29th December 2014
Going into 2014, there were high hopes for advancing privacy protections and to finally have the debate around surveillance we've been clamouring for. Privacy was even Dictionary.com's word of the year in 2013. Europe was on the edge of passing new strong privacy laws, despite protests from industry and governments. Parliaments in Canada and the United Kingdom had pushed back against expanding surveillance laws. Transparency reports were beginning to shine a more comprehensive picture on…
Content type: News & Analysis
24th February 2014
In Geneva this week, an expert seminar will be held at the Human Rights Council on the right to privacy. To inform these discussions and debates, Privacy International is releasing our report, The State of Privacy 2014, which identifies recent accomplishments from around the world, and highlights significant challenges ahead for this right.
To read the full report, go here.
Promoting and defending the right to privacy in national and international policy discourses is always an interesting…
Content type: News & Analysis
4th September 2015
While two of the Vice journalists who were recently arrested in Turkey and charged with terror offenses have now been released, this remain a deeply concerning incident.* It is the latest episode in what is a pincer movement against our right to protect our data.
Two British journalists and their Turkey-based Iraqi translator working for VICE News were arrested last Thursday and charged with "engaging in terrorist activity". According to Turkish authorities, one member of the group had an…
Content type: News & Analysis
6th November 2014
The past year has been an important one for the right to privacy. Privacy was Dictionary.com’s word of the year in 2013. Human Rights Watch called it “The Right Whose Time Has Come (again).”
However, privacy has not received enough attention in the international bodies that are meant to ensure our human rights are protected: there has been no major statement on privacy by a United Nations human rights body since 1988.
One crucial step to protect privacy, and address how the technical and…
Content type: News & Analysis
5th May 2016
Over the next two weeks, the 25th session of the Universal Period Review Working Group will take place in Geneva. The Universal Period Review is a key mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council to remind UN Member States of their responsibility to respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Amongst others, Hungary, the United Republic of Tanzania, Thailand, and Ireland will be reviewed. Privacy International, in collaboration with national civil society organisations in each…
Content type: News & Analysis
6th November 2015
This is a guest piece. It does not necessarily reflect the views or position of Privacy International.
In 1997, plans for a Civil Identification Registry (RIC) were signed into law in Brazil, promising to unify the 27 regional identification registries into a centralized federal one by 2020. The law, which was only enacted in 2010, continues to face obstacles to its implementation, but in 2014 there was a renewed wave of support for the project from the Ministry of Justice. Though the RIC…
Content type: News & Analysis
2nd October 2020
On September 16, Google announced their intention to enforce a new "stalkerware" policy after a 15 day grace period ending on 1 October 2020.The policy change states that the Google Play Store will only host stalkerware apps that give "a persistent notification is displayed while the data is being transmitted."
In its announcement, Google defines stalkerware as "Code that transmits personal information off the device without adequate notice or consent and doesn't…
Content type: News & Analysis
1st December 2017
The elections in our midst here, there, and everywhere are increasingly resulting in governments who introduce policies that result in leaps backwards for dignity, equality, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Whether it is Poland or the Philippines, governments are overriding essential safeguards.
This week Britain’s proposed surveillance legislation took another step toward normalising mass surveillance. The United States of America has long promoted mass surveillance and maintains its…
Content type: News & Analysis
24th April 2020
An estimated 90% of the world’s student population are affected by school closures in the Covid-19 pandemic. And, in the absence of physical space, education technology companies are stepping in to fill the gap. There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the potential of technology to provide support, but it’s important to consider the ongoing implications of which technology we choose, and the implications for those families who don’t have access to them in the first place.
That’s why we…
Content type: News & Analysis
13th March 2015
Today, on behalf of 92 human rights organisations around the world, an oral statement was delivered before the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling on the Council to establish a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy
Negotiations are on-going at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for the establishment of a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. If established, the Rapporteur will provide much-needed leadership and guidance on developing an understanding of the scope…
Content type: News & Analysis
10th March 2014
In the late eighteenth century in Germany, ‘anthropologist’ Johann Blumenbach published a degenerative hypothesis that linked cranium and facial profiles to supposed character traits and accordingly divided human beings into five different races: the Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American.1
In the 1870s, Alphonse Bertillon, a police officer in France, started a trend to identify criminals based on facial characteristics, alongside subsequent use of the camera to photograph and…
Content type: News & Analysis
15th May 2010
Nigel Waters has previously represented Privacy International at APEC Data Privacy Subgroup meetings, on one occasion with PI having official guest status, otherwise indirectly through membership of the Australian delegation. On this occasion, expenses were paid by USAid for participation in the technical assistance seminar, and this allowed attendance at the other meetings.
Cross border privacy rules
As a reminder, or for newcomers, the cross border privacy rules (CBPR) system is one…
Content type: Long Read
13th November 2019
Miguel Morachimo, Executive Director of Hiperderecho. Hiperderecho is a non-profit Peruvian organisation dedicated to facilitating public understanding and promoting respect for rights and freedoms in digital environments.
The original version of this article was published in Spanish on Hiperderecho's website.
Where does our feeling of insecurity come from? As we walk around our cities, we are being observed by security cameras most of the time. Our daily movement, call logs, and internet…
Content type: News & Analysis
21st June 2013
Trade has often been a positive driver in encouraging countries to adopt data protection laws, to ensure compliance and ability to conduct business with the European Union and other privacy-respecting partners. However, when free trade agreements are negotiated in secret and influenced by powerful business interests, the result is a severe watering down of existing privacy protections.
There is a high risk of this happening in the free trade negotiations between the European Union and the…
Content type: News & Analysis
3rd July 2013
Privacy International this week submitted stakeholder reports to the United Nations Human Rights Council1 about the human rights records of China, Senegal and Mexico. The reports, prepared in preparation with our partners in the respective countries, analyse the extent to which the right to privacy is respected and protected, and detail instances of privacy violations.
The stakeholder reports will inform the questions asked by members of the Human Rights Council when China, Senegal and Mexico…
Content type: Press release
20th June 2018
Gus Hosein, Executive Director of Privacy International:
The US federal government's cruel zero tolerance immigration policy has received widespread and international condemnation. In addition to the policy's clear moral failure it is also in violation of the government's legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which includes protecting families from unnecessary interference by the government.
The US government needs to understand that the…
Content type: News & Analysis
28th April 2018
Image was found here.
As part of Privacy International’s mission, we aim to take the issues emerging from our research and that of our partners to new spaces of debate and to the attention of stakeholders at the national, regional and international level.
In April 2018, Privacy International was able to engage for the first time with the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) at its 62nd Ordinary Session, which took place in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
The right to privacy does…
Content type: News & Analysis
22nd February 2014
“Open government” – the push for greater transparency, accountability and innovation from governments – is an idea that has gained increasing traction in recent years, as the potential for new technologies to enhance democracy is being realised.
But making government more open and responsive should not mean compromising on privacy and data protection. The Open Government Guide outlines steps governments can take towards more open government and Privacy International has written a draft chapter…