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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
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: Examples
In October 2018, the Singapore-based startup LenddoEFL was one of a group of microfinance startups aimed at the developing world that used non-traditional types of data such as behavioural traits and smartphone habits for credit scoring. Lenddo's algorithm uses numerous data points, including the number of words a person uses in email subject lines, the percentage of photos in a smartphone's library that were taken with a front-facing camera, and whether they regularly use financial apps on…
Content type: News & Analysis
Creative Commons Photo Credit: Source
In this first episode of the Gender and Privacy Series, we go to Manila in the Philippines to meet two transgender right activists - Naomi Fontanos and AR Arcon. We discuss what the right to privacy means to them and their fight against the government's plan to deploy an ID card system.
Listen to the podcast here.
Content type: News & Analysis
Creative Commons Photo Credit: Source
In the third episode of the Gender and Privacy Series, we talk about sex and privacy with two female activists: Sarah Jamie Lewis, an expert on the security of internet-connected sex toys, and Joana Varon, founder of the female-led Brazilian NGO Coding Rights.
Listen to the podcast here.
Content type: News & Analysis
One of the UN's largest aid programmes just signed a deal with the CIA-backed data monolith Palantir
Last week, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) announced a partnership with Palantir, the controversial US-based data analytics company with deep links to US intelligence agencies. This is a deal that has serious consequences for the privacy and security of the 90-million-plus recipients of WFP aid each year. The reaction to the news that WFP and Palantir have entered into this partnership, amongst many in the data and development community was immediate, and visceral. After all, Palantir has a…
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 Paraguay is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and TEDIC in Paraguay.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution does not mention the word privacy but protects private life under the "right to intimacy."
2. Data protection…
Content type: State of Privacy
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Privacy in Lebanon is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Privacy International and SMEX.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The Lebanon constitution does not explicitly mention the right to privacy.
2. Data protection law: The Electronic Transactions and…
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: State of Privacy
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Surveillance in Egypt is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and its partners.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution contains an explicit protection of the right to privacy.
2. Data protection law: In August 2018, the Cabinet…
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 Brazil is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Coding Rights.
Between 2014-2017, Privacy LatAm contributed to previous versions of this briefing.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution contains an explicit…
Content type: State of Privacy
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Surveillance in Chile is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Privacy International and its Chilean partners Derechos Digitales and Fundación Datos Protegidos.
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: Article 19 of Chile's constitution protects the right to a private life. It was reformed in 2018 to add a specific right to the protection of personal data.
2. Data protection laws: In 1999 Chile became 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 Argentina is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC).
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: While Argentina's constitution does not mention the word 'privacy', Section 19 has been taken by the…
Content type: Long Read
Photo credit: Francisco Javier Argel
Questions of identification and ID, with their associated privacy risks, are only increasing. There are multiple dimensions to understanding the impact of ID and identification; a key one is to understand how it can exclude. This is why Privacy International is conducting research to explore this important and underreported aspect.
Read our case studies: Carolina and Iliana.
In the identity discourse, identity is often closely linked to themes of “…
Content type: News & Analysis
Creative Commons Photo Credit: Source
In September 2018, a month after Argentina lawmakers voted against the legalisation of abortion, we spoke to Eduardo Ferreyra from the Buenos Aires-based Asociacion por los Derechos Civiles about the role of privacy in the abortion debate. Also joining us in this second episode of the Gender and Privacy Series is Ambika Tandon from the Centre for Internet and Society in India to discuss the intersection between privacy and bodily autonomy.…
Content type: Report
In December 2018, the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders-Kenya published a report analysing the needs and concerns of human rights defenders (HRD) in relation to privacy, data protection and communications surveillance.
A summary of their findings is below. Access the full report on their website.
Content type: Long Read
Photo Credit: Max Pixel
The fintech sector, with its data-intensive approach to financial services, faces a looming problem. Scandals such as Cambridge Analytica have brought public awareness about abuses involving the use of personal data from Facebook and other sources. Many of these are the same data sets that the fintech sector uses. With the growth of the fintech industry, and its increase in power and influence, it becomes essential to interrogate this use of data by the…
Content type: Long Read
Since 2004, October has been designated National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the United States. Many other countries have followed suit, as part of the effort to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity, and how we can all work together to improve it.
However, cyber security (or sometimes, just ‘cyber’) has not only become a term with multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings - that go from digital security or digital diplomacy to criminal activities with a digital…
Content type: Advocacy
Both “cyber security” and “cyber crime” are terms widely used but often poorly understood. This briefing provides an overview of terminology, concepts and trends in addressing cyber security and cyber crime. It describes the differences between them and associated challenges for the protection of peoples’ security and their human rights. It also highlights key elements and examples from cyber security frameworks and cyber crime legislation globally. The aim is to provide a basis for…
Content type: News & Analysis
Our intervention comes on the back of mounting evidence that the South African state’s surveillance powers have been abused, and so-called “checks & balances” in RICA have failed to protect citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.
Among our core arguments are:
That people have a right to be notified when their communications have been intercepted so that they can take action when they believe their privacy has been unlawfully breached. Currently RICA prevents such notification, unlike…
Content type: News & Analysis
Photo was found here
This essay was published in The Sur International Journal of Human Rights, Issue 27, July 2018.
Abstract:
This essay focuses on elections in Kenya and analyses the use of technology and the exploitation of personal data in both the electoral process and campaigning. We only need to look to Kenya’s election history to understand why it is important. The 2007/2008 election resulted in violence that killed over 1,000 people and displaced over 600,000. The 2013 election was…