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Content type: Advocacy
Dejusticia, Fundación Karisma, and Privacy International submitted a joint stakeholder report on Colombia to the 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council.Our submission raised concerns regarding the protection of the rights to freedom of expression and opinion, to privacy, and to personal data protection; the shutdown of civil society spaces; protection of the right to protest; and protection of the rights of the Venezuelan migrant and refugee population.…
Content type: Long Read
This piece was written by Joan López, researcher at Fundación Karisma, and originally posted on their website.
The uncertainty of this crisis has become an opportunity for the implementation of technological solutions to complex issues instead of coherent decision-making processes. During the social and economic crisis caused by Covid-19, the National Development Office (DNP in Spanish) in Colombia, in just two weeks, set up an unconditional cash transfer system for 3 million citizens. The…
Content type: Examples
Dejusticia, Colombia-based research and advocacy organisation, delivered a series of recommendations to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to be taken into account when issuing the next decree on vaccination against Covid-19.
Their recommendations include:
Adding the principle of non-discrimination to the plan to be proposed;
Requesting that the population deprived of liberty be vaccinated sooner than proposed to ensure they are detained in decent conditions;
Ensuring the…
Content type: Examples
Corruption scandals have added to Latin America’s challenges in dealing with the coronavirus. In Ecuador, prosecutors identified a criminal ring that colluded with health officials to sell body bags to hospitals at 13 times the normal price, and many others are accused of price-gouging for other medical supplies.
The former Bolivian health minister is under house arrest awaiting trial on corruption charges, government officials in seven Brazilian states are under investigation for misusing…
Content type: Examples
An audit of two apps and a website used by national and local governments in Colombia finds: an absence of public information about the tools, how they work, or how their security and privacy is protected; non-compliance with Colombia’s data protection legal framework, particularly in the area of consent; and reckless deployment of solutions that put hundreds of thousands of users’ personal data at risk. Fundación Karisma, which conducted the audit, makes a number of recommendations for…
Content type: Examples
Human Rights Watch reports that drug cartels and rebel groups are imposing their own lockdowns in rural areas of Colombia and using WhatsApp chats and pamphlets to advise local residents of curfew hours, transport shutdowns, and other bans that are far more strict than those imposed by the government. They have murdered at least eight civilians. In some areas, violent gangs are preventing people from leaving their homes at all, in two provinces armed groups have punished violators by torching…
Content type: Examples
Colombia will adopt the Apple-Google contact tracing platform after finding it necessary to remove the contact tracing functions from CoronApp, the official Colombian coronavirus information app because they didn’t work. CoronApp was downloaded by 4.3 million people, and includes features to report symptoms and locate cases on a map. The contact tracing features, which were supposed to be able to overcome the limitations of the iPhone’s Bluetooth implementation, were provided by the Portuguese…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Karisma in Colombia analysed three different technological solutions intending to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, finding vulnerabilities in them (in Spanish).
Link: https://web.karisma.org.co/que-sabemos-de-las-tres-herramientas-que-se-anuncian-como-soluciones-tecnologicas-para-el-manejo-del-covid-19/
Content type: Examples
Civil Society advocates, including PI, expressed their dissaproval of a letter from the Colombian Data Protection Authority, which was intending to give a blank exception to the government in relation with handling the pandemic.
Link (in Spanish): https://web.karisma.org.co/organizaciones-de-la-sociedad-civil-rechazan-circular-de-la-sic-sobre-uso-de-datos-personales-para-controlar-la-pandemia/
Content type: Examples
A reverse-engineering analysis of Vietnam's official Bluetooth-based contact tracing app, Bluezone, which was developed by a coalition of local technology companies and the Ministry of Information and Communications, shows that the app is broadcasting a fixed six-character ID the app assigned to each installation. The app, which is intended to alert people who may have come into contact with the virus while preserving their anonymity, comes in both iOS and Android versions, and quickly…
Content type: Examples
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology have launched the "corona.asan.gov.af" software to provide health advice in three English, Dari, and Pashto; using the questions embedded in the software users can evaluate themselves for the virus.
Source: https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/afghan-ministries-launch-coronavirus-tracking-app
Writer: TOLOnews
Publication: TOLOnews
Content type: Examples
Colombia's has launched the free, Android-only, prevention-focused Colombia-Coronapp developed by the National Health Institute (INS) to help identify and eradicate the virus across the country, as well provide centralisation and transparency. Besides their basic information, users are asked to say if they have participated in any mass events in the prior eight days, a controversial question because of the recent protests across the country. The app also provides safety tips, an updated map of…
Content type: News & Analysis
According to the International Organization for Migration, an estimated 258 million people are international migrants – that is, someone who changes their country of usual residence, That’s one in every 30 people on earth.
These unprecedented movements levels show no sign of slowing down. It is predicted that by 2050, there will be 450 million migrants across the world.
Nowadays, it is politically acceptable to demonise migrants, and countless leaders have spewed divisive and xenophobic…
Content type: Long Read
The Privacy International Network is celebrating Data Privacy Week, where we’ll be talking about how trends in surveillance and data exploitation are increasingly affecting our right to privacy. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek.
In the era of smart cities, the gap between the internet and the so-called physical world is closing. Gone are the days, when the internet was limited to your activities behind a desktop screen, when nobody knew you were a dog.
Today, the…
Content type: State of Privacy
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Privacy in Colombia is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Fundación Karisma and Dejusticia.
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution contains an explicit protection of the right to privacy (Article 15 of the 1991 constitution).
2…
Content type: Advocacy
Since 2014 the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics (MOCI) has been proposing that the Parliament passes a comprehensive data protection law. A first draft data protection law was issued by the Government for public comment in 2015 but no progress was made, and then in early 2018, the Indonesian Government issued a new draft personal data protection law.
While these renewed efforts have positive intentions, a number of concerns ought to be addressed with the aim of…
Content type: Advocacy
Privacy International welcomes the effort by the Government of India to reaffirm its commitment to upholding and respecting the right to privacy, and for noting the need to regulate the processing of personal data as essential for the protection of privacy through the adoption of a data protection law.
The urgent need for this legislation has been validated in the Supreme Court decision regarding the Aadhaar Act, which stipulates the need for a robust data protection regime. …
Content type: Long Read
The idea of a “smart city” is primarily a marketing concept, used to sell data-intensive technologies under the pretext of improving the functioning of cities. This could include injecting ‘smart’ tech into delivering services, public safety, environmental monitoring, traffic control, among other possible applications.
One in particular aspect of smart cities has been consistently problematic: how these projects are used to boost law enforcement and policing under the guise of public safety.…
Content type: Advocacy
We welcome the effort by the Pakistani Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications to regulate the processing of personal data in Pakistan, and take measures to guarantee the right to privacy as guaranteed under Article 14(1) of the Constitution: “[t]he dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be inviolable.”
This legislative development is crucial and timely as Pakistan continues to embrace innovative governance initiatives and deploy data-intensive systems…
Content type: News & Analysis
By Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan
What is a safe city?
The answer to this question is not uniform; in fact it varies according to who you ask.
In a focus group conducted by Digital Rights Foundation in May of last year, consisting of women rights activists from across Pakistan, the answer meant imagining a city that was not only safe for women, in terms of their physical safety, but also welcoming for women and non-binary individuals in its architecture and facilities. Women expressed…
Content type: Advocacy
Tanto la privacidad como la seguridad son esenciales para proteger a los individuos, su autonomía y su dignidad. El detrimento de la privacidad implica el detrimento de la seguridad de los individuos, sus dispositivos y la infraestructura de la que forman parte. La gente necesita privacidad para sentirse libremente segura y proteger su información, así como para gozar plenamente de otros derechos.
Una cantidad cada vez mayor de Gobiernos en el mundo está recurriendo también al hackeo para…
Content type: News & Analysis
Actualmente, las empresas tecnológicas se encuentran inmersas en constante cambio. Uno de ellos es la creciente importancia que ha cobrado la seguridad digital, convirtiéndose en una prioridad. Que un emprendimiento resguarde su seguridad digital significa que puede gestionar los riesgos asociados a mantener la confidencialidad, integridad y disponibilidad de su información.
En este contexto, resulta de gran relevancia que las personas responsables del emprendimiento digital y el…
Content type: News & Analysis
El objetivo es facilitar a la sociedad civil una guía para la navegación de este organismo, efectuar un diagnóstico que permita situar cualquier persona interesada sobre la actualidad de la temática a nivel regional y descubrir la agenda de seguridad digital que sostiene la OEA en el continente.
Finalmente, concluimos con una serie de breves recomendaciones dirigidas a los organismos de la OEA. Con ello, esperamos que este órgano reconozca el papel que puede jugar como catalizador en el…
Content type: News & Analysis
En el 2011 se liquidó el DAS. Las violaciones, excesos y abusos de la inteligencia estatal que comenzaban por la intimidad y terminaban con la vida de los ciudadanos habían producido condenas judiciales a varios exdirectores: claro indicador de que se necesitaba un cambio. Siete años ha tenido el Estado colombiano para ordenar la casa y esta semana someterá sus récords de derechos humanos al examen de los miembros de Naciones Unidas. La evaluación analizará, entre otros…
Content type: News & Analysis
Los frecuentes escándalos sobre el abuso de la vigilancia estatal en actividades de inteligencia, la exagerada obligación legal que tienen las empresas de telefonía de retener los datos de las comunicaciones de sus usuarios por cinco años o la manera como se diluye el concepto de privacidad en el Código de Policía serán parte del examen que se haga en el seno de la ONU sobre la forma como Colombia cumple sus compromisos de derechos humanos.
Dirigido por los Estados y con el auspicio del…
Content type: News & Analysis
In the lead-up to the 30th session of the Universal Periodic Review which took place on 10 May 2018, Fundación Karisma, a partner organisation in the Privacy International Network, joined a coalition of civil society groups in Colombia to raise more awareness about the country's human rights record.
As part of the joint effort, the coalition produced factsheets on various human rights in the Colombian context, including the right to privacy. It is available in both English and Spanish.
Content type: News & Analysis
El 10 de mayo de 2018, en el marco del 30º período de sesiones del Examen Periódico Universal (EPU) en el Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas, toca la revisión de Colombia, lo que es una oportunidad Colombia y otros Estados para declarar qué acciones han tomado para mejorar la situación de derechos humanos en sus propios países, para cumplir sus obligaciones internacionales en la materia.
Colombia se encuentra actualmente en un punto de inflexión, debido al proceso de transición…
Content type: News & Analysis
On 10 May 2018, Colombia’s human right record will be reviewed as part of the 30th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations.
Colombia is at an important turning point in its history as it transitions from four decades of conflict. This provides…
Content type: Report
La seguridad digital es una discusión crítica y hay que reconocer que la sociedad civil y los grupos de interés público no han sido suficientemente considerados. Como respuesta, varias organizaciones de la sociedad civil de América Latina se unieron para presentar informes que recuerdan a las entidades estatales responsables de formulación de políticas públicas que la seguridad digital debe tener en cuenta la seguridad de las personas y los derechos humanos. Presentamos la serie, Derechos…
Content type: Advocacy
India has been leading at developing some of the most complex and intense data-intensive systems in the world as exemplified with their mass biometric identification system, known as Aadhaar, as well as in the development and design of new technologies. To find out more about the main privacy issues in India, check out the State of Privacy in India.
And yet, India does not have a comprehensive privacy legislation and only limited data protection standards can be found under section 43A and…