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Content type: News & Analysis
Earlier this month, Brunei attracted international condemnation for a new law that will make gay sex punishable by death. While this is clearly abhorrent, Brunei is not the only country with explicit anti-gay laws.
Homosexuality is criminalised in over 70 countries around the world. And even in countries where gay sex is legal, such as the US, the LGBTIQ+ community still faces discriminatory surveillance and profiling by law enforcement agencies.
Through using the Internet and mobile apps,…
Content type: Long Read
Disclaimer: This piece was written in April 2017. Since publishing, further information has come out about Cambridge Analytica and the company's involvement in elections.
Recently, the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica has been the centre of tons of debate around the use of profiling and micro-targeting in political elections. We’ve written this analysis to explain what it all means, and the consequences of becoming predictable to companies and political campaigns.
What does…
Content type: News & Analysis
Modern communications surveillance policy is about gaining access to modern communications. The problem is that the discourse around communications policy today is almost the same as it was when it was simply a question of gaining access to telephone communications. "Police need access to social network activity just as they have access to phone calls" is the politician's line. We use Facebook as an example here, but most internet services will be similar in complexity and legality.
The…
Content type: News & Analysis
Inspired by the Europe v Facebook campaign and further motivated by revelations that individuals associated with WikiLeaks and the Occupy movements in Boston and New York have had their Twitter data disclosed to American law enforcement authorities, Privacy International is launching a campaign to encourage European data subjects to get access to the personal information that Twitter holds on them.
Our campaign aims to achieve two objectives: to help European citizens exercise their rights and…
Content type: News & Analysis
Facebook's new "Download your Information" feature reveals a radically different interpretation of transparency to one that the rest of us in Europe might hold. The feature may be a promising start, but the company still clearly has difficulty understanding the requirements of European Data Protection law. The feature provides only a fraction of the personal information held by Facebook and is thus still in violation of law.
The company may escape a prosecution under the UK Trades Description…