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Content type: Long Read
9th April 2019
(In order to click the hyperlinks in the explainer below, please download the pdf version at the bottom of the page).
Content type: Long Read
27th March 2019
(In order to click the hyperlinks in the explainer below, please download the pdf version at the bottom of the page).
Content type: Long Read
20th August 2019
This blog is about our new Twitter bot, called @adversarybot. If you want to follow the account, please do watch the pinned 'Privacy Policy' tweet before you do so.
Content type: Long Read
4th February 2019
Over the past year, the Privacy International Network has uncovered, campaigned, and advocated on how trends in surveillance and data exploitation are increasingly affecting our right to privacy.
To celebrate Data Privacy Day on 28 January, we shared a full week of stories and research, exploring how countries are addressing data governance, and the implications for our security and privacy.
Monday - Exposing Harms, Fighting Back
It is often communities who are already the most marginalised…
Content type: Long Read
28th June 2019
Everyday objects and devices that can connect to the Internet -- known as the Internet of Things (IoT) or connected devices -- play an increasing role in crime scenes and are a target for law enforcement. Exploiting new technologies that are in our homes and on our bodies as part of criminal investigations and for use as evidence, raises new challenges and risks that have not been sufficiently explored.
We believe that a discussion on the exploitation of IoT by law enforcement would benefit…
Content type: Long Read
23rd July 2019
image from portal gda (cc)
Many people are still confused by what is 5G and what it means for them. With cities like London, New York or San Francisco now plastered with ads, talks about national security, and the deployment of 5G protocols being treated like an arms race, what happens to our privacy and security?
5G is the next generation of mobile networks, which is meant to be an evolution of the current 4G protocols that mobile providers have deployed over the last decade, and there are…
Content type: Long Read
4th February 2019
During the last World Economic Forum in Davos, the CEO of Microsoft joined the chorus of voices calling for new global privacy rules, saying the following in regard to the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
“My own point of view is that it's a fantastic start in treating privacy as a human right. I hope that in the United States we do something similar, and that the world converges on a common standard."
We have come a long way. From tech companies fighting and…
Content type: Long Read
15th August 2019
Six years after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents providing details about how states' mass surveillance programmes function, two states – the UK and South Africa – publicly admit using bulk interception capabilities.
Both governments have been conducting bulk interception of internet traffic by tapping undersea fibre optic cables landing in the UK and South Africa respectively in secret for years.
Both admissions came during and as a result of legal proceedings brought by Privacy…
Content type: Long Read
11th June 2019
IMAGE SOURCE: "My Phone Bought This" by oliver t is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Mandatory SIM card registration laws require people to provide personal information, including a valid ID or even their biometrics, as a condition for purchasing or activating a SIM card. Such a requirement allows the state to identify the owner of a SIM card and infer who is most likely making a call or sending a message at any given time.
SIM card registration undermines peoples’ ability to communicate…
Content type: Long Read
15th February 2019
As calls for a ‘secure southern border’ are amplified in the US by politicians and pundits, Silicon Valley techies are coming out in force to proffer swanky digital solutions in the place of 30-foot steel slats or concrete blocks.
One such company is Anduril Industries, named after a sword in Lord of the Rings, which represents a symbol of hidden power.
Over recent months, Anduril Industries frontman Palmer Luckey has been making the PR rounds to promote his company’s version of a border wall…
Content type: Long Read
20th February 2019
(In order to click the hyperlinks in the explainer below, please download the pdf version at the bottom of the page).
Content type: Long Read
10th October 2019
Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash
Digital identity providers
Around the world, we are seeing the growth of digital IDs, and companies looking to offer ways for people to prove their identity online and off. The UK is no exception; indeed, the trade body for the UK tech industry is calling for the development of a “digital identity ecosystem”, with private companies providing a key role. Having a role for private companies in this sector is not necessarily a problem: after all, government…
Content type: Long Read
18th September 2019
Photo: Francesco Bellina
Driven by the need to never again allow organised mass murder of the type inflicted during the Second World War, the European Union has brought its citizens unprecedented levels of peace underpinned by fundamental rights and freedoms.
It plays an instrumental role in protecting people’s privacy around the world; its data protection regulation sets the bar globally, while its courts have been at the forefront of challenges to unlawful government surveillance practices…
Content type: Long Read
22nd May 2019
Like millions of other people, you use messaging apps, social media, share, read and watch content on your phone or computer. If that’s the case then hundreds of AdTech companies collect and exchange your data every single day. AdTech, a short form of advertisement technology, is a catch-all term that describes tools and services that connect advertisers with target audiences and publishers. It’s also a multi-billion-dollar industry that is facing investigations by Data Protection Authorities…
Content type: Long Read
17th May 2019
CEOs of the big tech companies have all recently discovered the value of privacy. On Tuesday, 30 April 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, announced his future plans to make Facebook a "privacy-focused social platform". This was followed by Google's Sundar Pichai demand that “privacy must be equally available to everyone in the world.” Meanwhile, Twitter's Jack Dorsey, has described the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as "net-positive", while Apple had already positioned itself as the champion of…
Content type: Long Read
3rd April 2019
Cellebrite, a surveillance firm marketing itself as the “global leader in digital intelligence”, is marketing its digital extraction devices at a new target: authorities interrogating people seeking asylum.
Israel-based Cellebrite, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sun Corporation, markets forensic tools which empower authorities to bypass passwords on digital devices, allowing them to download, analyse, and visualise data.
Its products are in wide use across the world: a 2019 marketing brochure (…
Content type: Long Read
19th May 2019
OPTION 1 - LIMIT TARGETED ADVERTISING
A simple step you can take is turning on strong (as possible) privacy settings on the social media platforms you use. Social media platforms play a key role in targeting ads at you – and they facilitate the use of your data in ways that you probably wouldn’t like. We've made guides to show you how to minimise the targeted ads you see on social media. These steps can help make advertising less targeted, meaning that an advertiser, in theory, will knows less…
Content type: State of Privacy
14th March 2019
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Surveillance in Tunisia is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and partners.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution contains an explicit protection of the right to privacy.
2. Data protection law: A draft law on the protection of personal data designed to replace the previous Law No. 63 was approved in March 2018 and came into force on May 25, 2018.
3. Data protection agency: Tunisia…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Privacy in Uganda is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Unwanted Witness.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution contains an explicit protection of the right to privacy (Art. 27).
2. Data protection law: There is no specific law or…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Privacy in South Africa is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and the Right2Know coalition.
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: Section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa protects the right to privacy.
2. Data protection laws:…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Privacy in the Philippines is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Foundation for Media Alternatives.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution contains an explicit protection of the right to privacy (Art. III, section 3).
2. Data…
Content type: State of Privacy
27th January 2019
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 law:…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Privacy in Pakistan is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and the Digital Rights Foundation.
Between 2014-2016, Bytes for All contributed to previous versions of the 'Data Protection' sections of this briefing.
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: Article 14(1) of the…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Surveillance in Morocco 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: There is a data protection law in…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Privacy in Mexico is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Red in Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) in Mexico.
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: The right to privacy is enshrined in article 6 of the Mexican constitution.
2. Data protection…
Content type: State of Privacy
27th January 2019
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 Personal…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Privacy in Kenya is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders - Kenya.
Key Privacy Facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: Article 31 of the Kenyan Constitution specifically protects the right to privacy.
2. Data…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgement
The State of Privacy in Jordan is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and 7iber.
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protections: Article 18 of the Jordanian constitution contains an explicit mention of privacy.
2. Data protection laws: There is currently no data protection…
Content type: State of Privacy
26th January 2019
Table of contents
Introduction
Right to Privacy
Communication Surveillance
Data Protection
Identification Schemes
Policies and Sectoral Initiatives
Introduction
Acknowledgment
The State of Privacy in Indonesia is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM).
Key privacy facts
Key privacy facts
1. Constitutional privacy protection: The constitution does not explicitly mention privacy.
2. Data protection law…