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Content type: Examples
The internet, mobile, and social media shutdown in Myanmar left protesters vulnerable to rumours and at a disadvantage in organising opposition to the 2021 military coup. Coordination was done via phone, word of mouth, and the Bluetooth-based messaging app Bridgefy, which was downloaded more than 1 million times in Myanmar in the days after the coup. All plans include both online and offline contingency arrangements; a second disruptive possibility is intermittent interruptions and throttling…
Content type: Examples
In August 2020, controversial Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko cut off most of the nation's access to the internet in hopes of disrupting the protests against the vote-rigging that saw him installed as president. Online news sites were left largely offline from election day onward, and demonstrators had to scramble to find wifi connections and working VPNs or proxies in order to share whatever news they could find. Protests therefore relied on popular bloggers on Telegram channels to…
Content type: Examples
The 2020 Belarus protests were the largest in the country's history and brought an unprecedented crackdown, in which protesters nationwide were tortured and criminally prosecuted as a means of repressing peaceful assembly. A report finds that these cases became political as the government violated the presumption of innocence and meted out disproportionately harsh sentences. The report found no reports of disciplinary action taken against law enforcement officers who exceeded their authority by…
Content type: Examples
Russian authorities are using facial recognition to track opposition protesters to their homes and arrest them, though the cameras are often turned off or "malfunctioning" when state security agents are suspected of attacks on or murders of journalists and opposition activists. The data is gathered into a central database and is sold cheaply by corrupt officials on Russia's "probiv" black market in data. Facial recognition software, produced by local companies such as NtechLab, is…
Content type: Examples
Protesters in Tunisia have faced hate messages, threats, and other types of harassment on social media, and been arrested when they complain to police. Arrests and prosecutions based on Facebook posts are becoming more frequent, and in street protests law enforcement appears to target LGBTQ community members for mistreament. In a report, Human Rights Watch collected testimonies to document dozens of cases in which LGBTQ people were harassed online, doxxed, and forcibly outed; some have been…
Content type: News & Analysis
The Aspen Card - the debit payment card given to asylum seekers that PI has previously exposed as a de facto surveillance tool - will be outsourced to a new company. The contract with Sodexo has come to an end and the company Prepaid Financial Services will be taking over.
Our campaign for transparency in relation to the Aspen Card and how it monitors asylum seekers continues. Not only do we demand clarity from the Home Office [read more here], we believe the new provider, Prepaid Financial…
Content type: Long Read
Over the last two decades we have seen an array of digital technologies being deployed in the context of border controls and immigration enforcement, with surveillance practices and data-driven immigration policies routinely leading to discriminatory treatment of people and undermining peoples’ dignity.
And yet this is happening with little public scrutiny, often in a regulatory or legal void and without understanding and consideration to the impact on migrant communities at the border and…
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: Examples
A database compiled through investigations conducted in 2018 by the Guardian and the Undercover Research Group network of activists shows that undercover police officers spied on 124 left-wing activist groups between 1970 and 2007. The police infiltrated 24 officers over that time within the Socialist Workers Party, which, with a membership of a few thousand, advocates revolution to ablish capitalism. Four of these undercover officers began sexual relationships with deceived female members, and…
Content type: Examples
A US House of Representatives oversight committee was told in March 2017 that photographs of about half of the adult US population are stored in facial recognition databases that can be accessed by the FBI without their knowledge or consent. In addition, about 80% of the photos in the FBI's network are of non-criminals and come from sources such as passports. Eighteen states supply driver's licences under arrangement with the FBI. In response, privacy advocates and politicians called for…
Content type: Examples
Facebook has come under fire after leaked documents revealed the social media site has been targeting potentially vulnerable children.
The allegations suggest the company is gathering information on young people who “need a confidence boost” to facilitate predatory advertising practices.
Confidential documents obtained by The Australian reportedly show how Facebook can exploit the moods and insecurities of teenagers using the platform for the benefit of advertisers.…
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…