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Content type: Long Read
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, major tech platforms have been rapidly evolving their business models. Despite their dominance in various markets, tech giants like Google and Meta are venturing into new territories to expand their user base. One of the most striking ventures has been their foray into the "connectivity market" through substantial, and occasionally unsuccessful, investments in network infrastructure.
Many tech companies are investing resources into network infrastructure, either…
Content type: Long Read
Our briefing, “When Spiders Share Webs: The creeping expansion of INTERPOL’s interoperable policing and biometrics entrench externalised EU borders in West Africa”, explores the concerning human rights implications of the use of interoperable data-driven policing capabilities and biometric technologies in West African countries rolled out by the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL)’s European Union (EU)-funded West African Police Information System (WAPIS) programme. We make a…
Content type: Legal Case Files
In September 2019, Privacy International filed 10 access to documents requests to EU bodies regarding the transfer of surveillance capabilities to non-EU countries. The requests seek documents providing information on the transfer of personal data, surveillance technology, training, financing, and legislation to non-EU countries. These are the disclosures so far from the DG International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO) – currently DG International Partnerships (INTPA).
Content type: Long Read
The fourth edition of PI’s Guide to International Law and Surveillance provides the most hard-hitting past and recent results on international human rights law that reinforce the core human rights principles and standards on surveillance. We hope that it will continue helping researchers, activists, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else working on these issues.The new edition includes, among others, entries on (extra)territorial jurisdiction in surveillance, surveillance of public…
Content type: Report
First published in 2017, PI’s Guide to International Law and Surveillance is an attempt to collate relevant excerpts from these judgments and reports into a single principled guide that will be regularly updated. This is the fourth edition of the Guide. It has been updated it to reflect the most relevant legal developments until March 2024.The Guide aspires to be a handy reference tool for anyone engaging in campaigning, advocacy, and scholarly research, on these issues. The fourth…
Content type: Opportunities
BackgroundPrivacy International (PI) has been examining the deployment of technologies in education, a major concern highlighted is the introduction of facial recognition technologies (FRT) in schools and other educational institutions, without appropriate human rights impact assessments, including privacy and data protection, and safeguards in place.One key example of FRT use in Brazil was examined by a report titled “Facial Recognition in Public Schools in Paraná” by Jararaca Labs. Building…
Content type: Opportunities
Full time and permanent from London office.
Salary
£39,520 full time and permanent from London office.
Benefits
26 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), generous workplace pension, wellbeing support, resources for learning & development, and we can offer a modest relocation fund.
About you, about us
Join us
You're curious about how technologies affect power and shape the future. You're an advocate who wants to speak out for change with a voice that is both nuanced and engaging. You want…
Content type: Explainer
Behind every machine is a human person who makes the cogs in that machine turn - there's the developer who builds (codes) the machine, the human evaluators who assess the basic machine's performance, even the people who build the physical parts for the machine. In the case of large language models (LLMs) powering your AI systems, this 'human person' is the invisible data labellers from all over the world who are manually annotating datasets that train the machine to recognise what is the colour…
Content type: Explainer
IntroductionThe emergence of large language models (LLMs) in late 2022 has changed people’s understanding of, and interaction with, artificial intelligence (AI). New tools and products that use, or claim to use, AI can be found for almost every purpose – they can write you a novel, pretend to be your girlfriend, help you brush your teeth, take down criminals or predict the future. But LLMs and other similar forms of generative AI create risks – not just big theoretical existential ones – but…
Content type: Advocacy
In an increasingly digitised world, automation, artificial intelligence and sensitive data processing present new and rapidly shifting challenges which underscore the urgent need for states to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are explicitly addressed and centred when it comes to the use of data and technology. Digital technologies can offer important opportunities for accessibility and the realisation of human rights of persons with disabilities, but can also present…
Content type: Video
Links- Andres Freund's Mastodon - where he revealed the backdoor: - Read more in Ars Technica's article about it - Read more in The Verge's article - Read more in Wired's article about it - Check out this excellent and very helpful infographic- The XKCD comic we mention
Content type: Advocacy
As part of our campaign 'The End of Privacy in Public' and our wider work monitoring developments of facial recognition technology (FRT) in the UK, we continue to to challenge the government, the police and the private sector regarding their unfettered roll out of FRT in the UK.To this end, we co-signed a letter sent on 4 June 2024, alongside UK civil society organisations campaigning against the use of facial recognition, to retailers across the UK calling on them to not use live FRT within…
Content type: Advocacy
As part of our campaign 'The End of Privacy in Public' and our wider work monitoring developments of facial recognition technology (FRT) in the UK, we continue to to challenge the government, the police and the private sector regarding their unfettered roll out of FRT in the UK. In May 2024, we co-signed a letter with a coalition of UK based NGOs regarding a recent investigation that exposed The Metropolitan Police's (the Met) use of website PimEyes. PimEyes acts as a facial recognition ‘…
Content type: Long Read
Social media is now undeniably a significant part of many of our lives, in the UK and around the world. We use it to connect with others and share information in public and private ways. Governments and companies have, of course, taken note and built fortunes or extended their power by exploiting the digital information we generate. But should the power to use the information we share online be unlimited, especially for governments who increasingly use that information to make material…
Content type: Long Read
Table of contentsIntroductionWeighing the (potential) benefits with the risksPrivacy rights and the right to healthThe right to healthPrivacy, data-protection and health dataThe right to health in the digital contextWhy the drive for digitalImproved access to healthcarePatient empowerment and remote monitoringBut these same digital solutions carry magnified risks…More (and more connected) dataData leaks and breachesData sharing without informed consentProfiling and manipulationTools are not…
Content type: Opportunities
The attached Terms of Reference lay out the details of Privacy International (PI)'s call for a five day consultancy to produce a report on the use of technologies and personal data for purposes of surveillance and/ or other repressive and authoritarian practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel.The deadline to submit applications is 18:00 BST 31 July 2024.
Content type: Opportunities
The attached Terms of Reference lay out the details of Privacy International (PI)'s call for a five day consultancy to produce a report on the use of technologies and personal data for purposes of surveillance and/ or other repressive and authoritarian practices in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.The deadline to submit applications is 18:00 BST 31 July 2024.
Content type: People
Tara is a Legal Officer at Privacy International. She works on legal advocacy and supports PI’s litigation efforts in the areas of surveillance, the authoritarian use of technology and social and economic justice. Tara was admitted as an attorney in South Africa in March 2018, and holds a Master of Laws (LLM), Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and undergraduate degrees in law and political science. Before joining PI, Tara worked as a human rights attorney in South Africa, specialising in information…
Content type: Advocacy
What's happening with digital ID in Kenya?In 2018, the Kenyan government tried to introduce the Huduma Namba project. Among other things, the project established the National Identity Integrated Management System (NIIMS); a centralised database purposed to consolidate all government records about an individual into a single ID system. In April 2019, PI submitted an expert affidavit challenging the NIIMS. In 2020, the High Court of Kenya acknowledged several key issues raised by PI in its…
Content type: Long Read
In 2024, Privacy International continued to produce real change by challenging governments and corporations that use data and technology to exploit us.Since the beginning of the year, we’ve achieved some big wins and would like to share them with you.Take a look below for a quick overview of the results we produced or contributed towards, by season.Winter & Spring 2024New EU regulation empowers consumersOn 17 January 2024, the European Parliament adopted the Directive on empowering…
Content type: Advocacy
Generative AI models cannot rely on untested technology to uphold people's rightsThe development of generative AI has been dependent on secretive scraping and processing of publicly available data, including personal data. However, AI companies have to date had an unacceptably poor approach towards transparency and have sought to rely on unproven ways to fulfill people's rights, such as to access, rectify, and request deletion of their dataOur view is that the ICO should adopt a stronger…
Content type: Advocacy
At PI we have been observing with concern the rapid expansion of technologies in educational settings, which has included a wide array of tools that allow the surveillance of students and academic staff, to the detriment of their privacy and academic freedom. We consider this upcoming report as an essential platform to examine the intricate interplay between academic freedom, freedom of expression, and surveillance conducted by both public and private entities through Education…
Content type: Advocacy
While PI recognises the threats posed by cybercrime, PI reiterates the need both for a narrow scope for the proposed Convention, focusing solely on core cyber-dependent crimes, as well as for effective safeguards throughout the entire treaty to ensure human rights are respected and protected, especially in the areas of privacy and freedom of expression. Throughout the negotiations most of proposals by Member States and other stakeholders aimed at restricting the scope of the treaty and…
Content type: Opportunities
Full time and permanent from London officeSalary: £39,520 full time and permanent from London officeBenefits: 26 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), generous workplace pension, wellbeing support, resources for learning & development, and we can offer a modest relocation fund.Join us: You’re curious about how technologies affect power and shape the future. You’re an advocate who wants to speak out for change with a voice that is both nuanced and engaging. You want to help…
Content type: Video
Links - Read more about PI's work on encryption- Matt Blaze and crypto.com; you can now find Matt at mattblaze.org - More about ITAR and the export of cryptography- More about France's ban on encryption ending in this 1999 article from the Register- More about the Data Encryption Standard - Find out more about the Clipper Chip or take a look at this NY Times article from 1994 (paywalled)- Matt Blaze's flaw in the Clipper Chip- NSA Data Center and NSA holding data- An old…
Content type: News & Analysis
Is the AI hype fading? Consumer products with AI assistant are disappointing across the board, Tech CEOs are struggling to give examples of use cases to justify spending billions into Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and models training. Meanwhile, data protection concerns are still a far cry from having been addressed.
Yet, the believers remain. OpenAI's presentation of ChatGPT was reminiscent of the movie Her (with Scarlett Johannsen's voice even being replicated a la the movie), Google…
Content type: Long Read
Sports are a huge part of daily life for billions around the world, a fundamental aspect of the rich tapestry of the human experience.Attending a major sporting event can be a formative experience in someone’s life, as a place to share in a communal culture.Increasingly we have seen surveillance, and especially mass surveillance measures, being introduced at sports events impeding the enjoyment particularly of the right to privacy and right to participate in sporting life.When we saw that the…
Content type: News & Analysis
On 15 May 2024, a London Administrative Court handed down its judgment in the case of ADL & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department, just two months after another court judgment and a ruling of the UK's data protection authority (ICO). The four Claimants in this latest case (including asylum seekers and survivors of trafficking) were challenging the UK Home Office's policy of placing people released from immigration detention under 24/7 GPS surveillance - either by shackling them…
Content type: Long Read
IntroductionFor years PI has been exposing and advocating against the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) and the grave threats it poses to our rights. This highly invasive technology is paving the way to a dystopian, biometric surveillance state, where everyone is identified and tracked everywhere they go, in real time, as they move through public spaces during their everyday lives. Furthermore, this is taking place within a democratic vacuum, without any specific legislation pertaining…