Search
Content type: Long Read
22nd August 2022
Introduction
In response to the unprecedented social, economic, and public health threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Bank financed at least 232 "Covid-19 Response" projects. The projects were implemented across countries the World Bank classifies as middle and low-income.
This article will focus on eight (8) Covid-19 Response projects which sought to deliver social assistance to individuals and families on a "non-contributory" basis (this means that the intended beneficiaries…
Content type: Long Read
14th July 2022
The global COVID-19 health crisis not only induced a public health crisis, but has led to severe social, economic and educational crises which have laid bare any pre-existing gaps in social protection policies and frameworks. Measures identified as necessary for an effective public health response such as lockdowns have impacted billions workers and people's ability to sustain their livelihood worldwide, with countries seeing unprecedented levels of applications for welfare benefits support,…
Content type: Advocacy
15th June 2022
Despite repeated recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly to review, amend or enact national laws to ensure respect and protection of the right to privacy, national laws are often inadequate and do not regulate, limit or prohibit surveillance powers of government agencies as well as data exploitative practices of companies.
Even when laws are in place, they are seldom enforced. In fact PI notes how it is often only following legal challenges in national or…
Content type: Long Read
22nd June 2021
Social protection programmes can be broadly understood as government support for individuals to meet basic human needs, protecting citizens from the “economic risks and insecurities of life”. These policies and programmes are essential to reducing the lifelong consequences of poverty and exclusion. Programmes like cash transfers – including child grants, school meals, skills development and more – help connect families with health care, nutritious food and quality education. To ensure that…
Content type: Advocacy
4th May 2021
This report is presented by TEDIC (Technology and Community Association) and Privacy International (PI). TEDIC is a non-governmental, non-profit organization, based in Asunción, that promotes and defends human rights on the Internet and extends its networking to Latin America. PI is a London based human rights organization that works globally at the intersection of modern technologies and rights.
TEDIC and PI wish to express some concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to…
Content type: News & Analysis
27th April 2021
Back in 2019, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a partnership between the NHS and Amazon Alexa. The goal of the partnership was for Alexa to be able to use the content of the NHS website when people asked health-related questions.
At the time, we expressed a number of concerns regarding this agreement: Amazon did not appear to be an actor that should be trusted with our health information, and seeing the Health Secretary publicly praising this new agreement appeared to give Amazon…
Content type: News & Analysis
13th April 2021
This article was written by Jamila Venturini from Derechos Digitales. The original version (in Spanish) is available here.
While at the international level there is a growing demand to ban the use of surveillance technologies until rigorous human rights standards are achieved, in Latin America we observe a new and silent tendency to acquire and use such systems to control access to social protection, i.e., to policies developed to reduce poverty, social vulnerability and exclusion.
Our…
Content type: Long Read
29th March 2021
This piece was last updated in June 2021.
In many countries, access to social protection (such as welfare programmes or healthcare) is made conditional on producing a form of identification (“ID”). But obtaining a recognised and accurate ID is often a process riddled with discriminatory designs, bureaucracy and technical failures that prevent individuals from accessing the services they are entitled to. Even when people eventually get an ID, it might not accurately reflect who they are,…
Content type: Video
19th March 2021
Content warning: this episode includes some disturbing stories of people who have died after having their benefits cut or withdrawn by the UK Department of Work and Pensions
Links
Find out more about the DWP's surveillance
Find out more about the DWP's alogrithim
You can find out more about each of the cases of people who died after their benefits withdrawn below:
Errol Graham
The 5,000
Jodey Whiting
Phillipa Day
David Clapson
If you're having problems navigating the UK's benefits…
Content type: Explainer
15th March 2021
You can access PI’s response to the consultation here.
This explainer is based on PI’s analysis and understanding of:
The Consultation text
The Draft Code of Data Matching Practice
The Cabinet Office’s data specifications for the public and private sector
The Cabinet Office’s 2015 case-studies both for the public and private sector
The Data Protection Impact Assessment for the current iteration of the National Fraud Initiative
The National Fraud Initiative fees documents for the public …
Content type: Long Read
14th February 2021
Back in 2019, we read through a 1000-page manual released by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) describing how they conduct investigations into alleged benefits fraud. While out in the open and accessible to anyone, the guide turned out to be a dizzying dive into a world where civil servants are asked to stand outside someone’s door to decide if they are indeed single or disabled and have to be reminded that living together as a married couple is not an offense. The guide – which…
Content type: Long Read
14th February 2021
In May 2019, the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – the department in charge of welfare – published their two-part staff guide on conducting fraud investigations. Privacy International went through the 995 pages to understand how those investigations happen and how the DWP is surveilling benefits claimants suspected of fraud.
Anyone who has flipped through a tabloid will have seen articles exposing the so-called “benefits-cheats,” people who allegedly trick the benefits systems for…
Content type: News & Analysis
30th June 2020
A unanimous ruling by the Court of Appeal confirmed earlier findings that the rigid monthly income assessment regime set up by the Department of Work and Pensions - the entity responsible for issuing benefits - to calculate the amount of benefits to be paid out resulted in significant and unwarranted cash losses to benefits claimants. The Court of Appeal found that the failure by the Department of Work and Pensions to rectify the issue was unlawful.
The case is a clear example of how automated…
Content type: Case Study
27th May 2020
In the UK, asylum seekers cannot claim benefits. Some of them are entitled to an ASPEN card, a pre-paid payment card that allocates them a weekly sum of money. Most of them are allowed to use it the way we would use any debit card. But people, whose applications have been refused but who cannot return to their countries, aren’t allowed to withdraw cash. That means that every single payment they make can be monitored by the Home Office.
Evidence has started emerging that this monitoring has led…
Content type: Report
24th May 2020
It is common for families with no recourse to public funds who attempt to access support from local authorities to have their social media monitored as part of a 'Child in Need' assessment.
This practice appears to be part of a proactive strategy on the part of local authorities to discredit vulnerable families in order to refuse support. In our experience, information on social media accounts is often wildly misinterpreted by local authorities who make serious and unfounded allegations…
Content type: Advocacy
22nd May 2020
Privacy International sent a letter to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) addressing social media monitoring carried out by Local Authorities.
The submission builds on a campaign and research carried out by PI highlighting the growth of social media monitoring across Local Authorities, as well as the general lack of internal oversight for some of these activities. After providing an introduction to the research and the findings, the letter highlights each of PI’s concerns…
Content type: Case Study
13th May 2020
From 2019 to 2020, citizens of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Netherlands were subject to unlawful invasion of their privacy by the Dutch government’s automated welfare fraud detection system. The system is known as System Risk Indicator (SyRI), and the Dutch government used it to generate risk scores for individual citizens by combining personal data including “identity, labor, personal estates and property, education, pension, business, income and assets, pension and debts.…
Content type: News & Analysis
24th February 2020
Today, the District Court of the Hague ruled that the right to privacy prevailed over the hunt against alleged benefits fraudsters. The ruling could have huge implications for the future of digital welfare around the world.
In NJCM cs/ De Staat der Nederlanden (NJCM vs the Netherlands), also known as the SyRI case, the court considered the legality of the System Risk Indication (SyRI), a system designed by the Dutch government to process large amounts of data collected by various Dutch public…
Content type: Advocacy
24th February 2020
TEDIC, InternetLab, Derechos Digitales, la Fundación Karisma, Dejusticia, la Asociación por los Derechos Civiles y Privacy International acogen el llamado de la Relatoría Especial sobre Derechos Económicos, Sociales, Culturales y Ambientales (DESCA) de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) de enviar información para la elaboración del Informe Anual sobre DESCA del año 2019, que se presentará ante la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) en 2020.
El objeto de este…
Content type: Advocacy
24th February 2020
TEDIC, InternetLab, Derechos Digitales, Fundación Karisma, Dejusticia, Asociación por los Derechos Civiles and Privacy International welcome the call made by the Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (ESCER) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to inform the preparation of the Annual Report of the ESCER for the year 2019, which will be presented to the Organization of American States (OAS) during 2020.
This submission aims to outline…
Content type: News & Analysis
17th October 2019
CC: BY (Kirill Sharkovski)-SA
Este artículo fue escrito por Jamila Venturini, Coordinadora regional de Derechos Digitales. El artículo fue publicado por primera vez aquí. This article is available in English.
La implementación de programas que condicionan el acceso a servicios básicos por medio de vigilancia estatal y privada agudizan la inequidad imperante en el continente.
Mientras la brecha entre ricos y pobres se incrementa en el mundo, América Latina sigue siendo la región donde la…
Content type: News & Analysis
17th October 2019
Picture: CC: BY (Kirill Sharkovski)-SA
This article was written by Jamila Venturini from Derechos Digitales. The original version (in Spanish) is available here.
How implementing social protection programmes that condition access to basic services to state and private surveillance exacerbate the prevailing inequality on the continent.
While the gap between rich and poor is increasing in the world, Latin America remains the most unequal region of the world. According to the Economic…
Content type: News & Analysis
17th October 2019
Photo by Ray Witlin / World Bank CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
This article has been written by Ambika Tandon, Policy Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Privacy International.
On October 17th 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip Alston, released his thematic report on digital technology, social protection and human rights. Understanding the impact of technology on the provision of social protection – and, by extent, its…
Content type: Long Read
16th October 2019
This research is the result of a collaboration between Grace Tillyard, a doctoral researcher in the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies department at Goldsmiths College, London, and Privacy International.
Social Protection Systems in the Digital Age
In the digital age, governments across the world are building technologically integrated programmes to allow citizens to access welfare payments. While smart and digital technologies hold the potential to streamline administrative…
Content type: News & Analysis
10th July 2019
Today, the British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a partnership between the NHS and Amazon to use the NHS’s website content as the source for the answer given to medical question, such as “Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?”
While we welcome Amazon’s use of a trusted source of information for medical queries, we are however extremely concerned about the nature and the implications of this partnership. Amazon is a company with a worrying track record when it comes to the way they…
Content type: News & Analysis
8th July 2019
By Ailidh Callander, Legal Officer
This piece first appeared in the 500th edition of the Scottish Legal Action Group Journal (2019 SCOLAG (500, June) 124
Political scandal, stronger regulation on privacy but what about social protection?
In an increasingly digitalised and data driven world, an era of government and corporate mass data exploitation, the right to privacy and data protection and what this means in practice is more important than ever. Surveillance is a power generator and…
Content type: Examples
7th May 2019
In Israel, the National Insurance Institute – in charge of granting benefits – eventually dropped a tender that had caused outrage in the country after being uncovered by Haaretz and Channel 13. The tender revealed the NII was trying to collect online data about benefits claimants – including from social media – to detect cases of frauds. The tender used wheelchair users as an example, suggesting that finding pictures of alleged wheelchair users using bikes on social media could contribute to…
Content type: Examples
7th May 2019
The rise of social media has also been a game changer in the tracking of benefits claimants. In the UK in 2019, a woman was jailed after she was jailed for five months after pictures of her partying in Ibiza emerged on social media. She had previously sued the NHS for £2.5 million, after surviving a botched operation. She had argued the operation had left her disabled and the “shadow of a former self” but judges argued that the pictures suggested otherwise.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/…
Content type: Examples
7th May 2019
The rise of social media has also been a game changer in the tracking of benefits claimants. Back in 2009, the case of Nathalie Blanchard a woman in Quebec who had lost her disability insurance benefits for depression because she looked “too happy” on her Facebook pictures had made the news.
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/woman-loses-insurance-benefits-facebook-pics/story?id=9154741
Author: Ki Mae Heussner
Publication: ABC News