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Content type: Long Read
IntroductionWith the ongoing expansion of GPS tagging under the UK Home Office's electronic monitoring programme, it has increasingly deployed non-fitted devices (NFDs) that track a person's GPS location and request frequent biometric verification in the form of fingerprint scans.The NFDs deployed by the UK Home Office are small handheld devices with a fingerprint scanner that record a person's location 24/7 (referred to as their trail data). They alert the person at random intervals throughout…
Content type: Long Read
With the introduction of GPS tracking of people on immigration bail, the UK has recently put GPS ankle tags, and their potential privacy and security issues, under the spotlight. PI has exposed the intrusive nature and shortcomings of these devices through technical explainers and complaints to the UK data protection and forensic science regulators.
But, what better way to understand the risks associated with a device than to actually use one? In order to further consolidate our understanding…
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: Explainer
Bluetooth
The majority of apps settled on using Bluetooth for proximity tracing.
Just what is Bluetooth?
Named after the 10th Century King Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson who unified Scandinavia — and whose runic initials comprise the logo — Bluetooth is a wireless, low-power, and therefore short-distance, set of protocols used primarily to connect devices directly to each other in order to transfer data, such as video and audio.
Bluetooth for tracking?
Most of us who've encountered Bluetooth use…
Content type: Explainer
An array of digital technologies are being deployed in the context of border enforcement. Satellite and aerial surveillance are part of the surveillance toolkit and yet, they are also used by organisations seeking to hold government actions to account and improve efficacy of their own work. To effectively critique state use and delve into potential benefits of satellite and aerial surveillance, we must first understand it.
In this explainer we dig into a technology which many are aware of for…
Content type: Explainer
At first glance, infrared temperature checks would appear to provide much-needed reassurance for people concerned about their own health, as well as that of loved ones and colleagues, as the lockdown is lifted. More people are beginning to travel, and are re-entering offices, airports, and other contained public and private spaces. Thermal imaging cameras are presented as an effective way to detect if someone has one of the symptoms of the coronavirus - a temperature.
However, there is little…
Content type: Explainer
In a scramble to track, and thereby stem the flow of, new cases of COVID-19, governments around the world are rushing to track the locations of their populace.
In this third installment of our Covid-19 tracking technology primers, we look at Satellite Navigation technology. In Part 1 of our mini-series on we discussed apps that use Bluetooth for proximity tracking. Telecommunications operators ('telcos'), which we discussed in Part 2, are also handing over customer data, showing the cell towers…
Content type: Explainer
In a scramble to track, and thereby stem the flow of new cases of Covid-19, Governments around the world are rushing to track the locations of their populace. One way to do this is to leverage the metadata held by mobile service providers (telecommunications companies - "Telcos" - such as Hutchison 3 (Also known as Three), Telefonica (Also known as O2), Vodafone, and Orange) in order to track the movements of a population, as seen in Italy, Germany and Austria, and with the European Commission…
Content type: Explainer
In a scramble to track, and thereby stem the flow of, new cases of Covid-19, Governments around the world are rushing to track the locations of their populace. One way to do this is to write a smartphone app which uses Bluetooth technology, and encourage (or mandate) that individuals download and use the app. We have seen such examples in Singapore and emerging plans in the UK.
Apps that use Bluetooth are just one way to track location. There are several different technologies in a smartphone…
Content type: News & Analysis
We found the image here.
You’d be hard pressed to find an issue relating to human rights or the rule of law that wouldn’t benefit from a greater appreciation of the role of technology plays. Increasingly the practice of law, the waging of politics, and the conduct of social and economic affairs all are altered, modified, and even conducted through technological means. So to is the accumulation and use of power.
This is why at Privacy International, technology is at the core of what we do as…
Content type: News & Analysis
There are three good reasons why security is so hard for NGOs. First, we are afraid to speak about meaningful security. Second, we focus on the wrong areas of security and in turn spend money and prioritise the wrong things. Third, we struggle to separate the world we want from the worlds we build within our own organisations. At PI we have failed and struggled with each of these for over 20 years. Out of exhaustion, we decided to do something about it: we are building an open framework, a…
Content type: News & Analysis
The short answer is yes.
I'm sure many of you have seen people with stickers over their webcams and wondered why (probably writing that person off as paranoid). But it's well known in tech circles that a camera in a computer or smartphone can be turned on remotely by an attacker with the resources, time, and motivation.
Security is hard, and our defences are weak. The capability of an adversary to attack your devices doesn't necessarily hinge upon a consumer choice of…
Content type: News & Analysis
Why would we ever let anyone hack anything, ever? Why are hacking tools that can patently be used for harm considered helpful? Let's try to address this in eight distinct points:
1) Ethical hacking is a counter proof to corporate claims of security.
Companies make products and claim they are secure, or privacy preserving. An ethical hack shows they are not. Ethical hackers produce counter-proofs to government or corporate claims of security, and thus defend us, piece by tiny…
Content type: News & Analysis
Technologists hoped the “Crypto Wars” of the 1990s – which ended with cryptographers gaining the right to legally develop strong encryption that governments could not break – was behind them once and for all. Encryption is a fundamental part of our modern life, heavily relied on by everything from online banking and online shopping services to the security our energy infrastructure.
However, from comments by the French and German governments about creating a European initiative to circumvent…
Content type: Report
This investigation looks at how surveillance is being conducted in Thailand. The first part of the investigation focuses on the ties between telecommunication companies and the state, and the second part of the investigation focuses on attacks conducted in order to attempt to circumvent encryption.
Content type: News & Analysis
As of October 1st, it has become impossible for the public to see footage from North Carolina police body cameras as a result of new law HB 972. This should be of concern to anyone who cares about police accountability and the balance of power in the new digital surveillance era. Increasingly, we are seeing law enforcement use new technology to respond not only to unrest and crime but also to collect and monitor data about individuals who are not suspected of any criminal involvement, such as…
Content type: News & Analysis
Privacy can be seen as a reflex of innovation. One of the seminal pieces on the right to privacy as the 'right to be let alone emerged in response to the camera and its use by the tabloid media. Seminal jurisprudence is in response to new surveillance innovations... though often with significant delays.
While one approach would be to say that privacy is a norm and that with modern technologies the norm must be reconsidered and if necessary, abandoned; I think there’s an interesting idea around…
Content type: Report
The explosion of telecommunications services has improved the ability for human rights groups to disseminate information worldwide. New telephone, facsimile and computer communications have created opportunities for human rights groups to improve organizing and to promote human rights faster and at a lower cost than ever before. However, these new technologies can be monitored by governments and other groups seeking to monitor the activities of human rights advocates. For this reason, human…