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Content type: Case Study
10th June 2020
Students around the world are quickly turning into training-data for intrusive facial recognition technology. In Sweden, the national Data Protection Authority (DPA) ruled that students at Anderstorp High School in Skellefteå had their right to privacy violated by the testing of facial recognition software to take attendance.
The Skellefteå school board invited a private company, Tieto, to install facial recognition cameras across classrooms that would automatically register students’ class…
Content type: Examples
13th May 2020
Sweden's Lund University has launched an app intended to map the spread of the coronavirus across Sweden, a localised version of the JoinZOE COVID Symptom Tracker app pioneered in the UK, which the researchers believe could be coupled with seroprovalence testing in order to develop an accurate map of the the virus's spread. However, the Public Health Agency is sceptical about how useful the data will be, on the basis that it has its own data. The agency has halted work on on a digital tool that…
Content type: News & Analysis
28th November 2019
On 24 October 2019, the Swedish government submitted a new draft proposal to give its law enforcement broad hacking powers. On 18 November 2019, the Legal Council (“Lagråd”), an advisory body assessing the constitutionality of laws, approved the draft proposal.
Privacy International believes that even where governments conduct hacking in connection with legitimate activities, such as gathering evidence in a criminal investigation, they may struggle to demonstrate that hacking as a form of…
Content type: News & Analysis
31st March 2016
This week the UN Human Rights Committee has issued recommendations to the Governments of Namibia, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Africa, and Sweden to reform and strengthen surveillance and privacy protections.
The Committee recommendations touch upon some of the fundamental issues of surveillance powers and the right to privacy, including mass surveillance, retention of communication data, judicial authorisation, transparency, oversight, and regulating intelligence sharing.
These recommendations…
Content type: News & Analysis
7th March 2016
This week will see the right to privacy take center stage at the UN in Geneva.
The UN Special rapporteur on the right to privacy will present his first report to the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday 9 March. Meanwhile the Human Rights Committee will review the records of surveillance and the right to privacy of South Africa and Sweden among others.
The new Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
A year ago the Human Rights Council established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur…
Content type: Advocacy
6th March 2016
Privacy International, Civil Rights Defenders and DFRI note Sweden’s written replies to the list of issues in relation to Swedish laws, policies and practices on interception of personal communications.
The following comments are based on the analysis of the Swedish legislation, as well as policies and practices on surveillance by Privacy International, Civil Rights Defenders and DFRI.
Content type: News & Analysis
26th February 2015
The focus on the right to privacy continues at the United Nations, with Kenya, Turkey, and Sweden being recently challenged over their surveillance practices during the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review of States' human rights records.
The explicit mention of the right to privacy in recommendations submitted by Slovenia and the Netherlands during the review of Sweden, in the recommendation by Estonia during Turkey's review, and Liechtenstein's recommendations to Kenya are a…
Content type: News & Analysis
23rd June 2014
What do Egypt, Kenya, Turkey, Guinea, and Sweden have in common? Despite having a Constitutional right to privacy, they are adopting and enforcing policies that directly challenge this human right.
These states are also up for a Universal Periodic Review this year before the United Nations Human Rights Council. UPRs are a mechanism within the Council aimed at improving the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.
Despite having provided…
Content type: Advocacy
23rd June 2014
This stakeholder report is a submission by Privacy International (PI). PI is a human rights organisation that works to advance and promote the right to privacy and fight surveillance around the world. PI wishes to bring concerns about the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in Sweden before the Human Rights Council for consideration in Sweden’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review.
Content type: Advocacy
23rd June 2014
What do Egypt, Kenya, Turkey, Guinea, and Sweden have in common? Despite having a Constitutional right to privacy, they are adopting and enforcing policies that directly challenge this human right.
These states are also up for a Universal Periodic Review this year before the United Nations Human Rights Council. UPRs are a mechanism within the Council aimed at improving the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.
Despite having provided…
Content type: News & Analysis
21st October 2013
At the first major discussions on internet governance since the Snowden leaks began in June 2013, Sweden’s Foreign Minister has called for the establishment of principles to define the application of existing human rights obligations to the digital realm.
Noting that the Snowden revelations have given birth to “a new debate about surveillance and privacy”, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt acknowledged that internet governance is being challenged, as some States operate vast surveillance systems…
Content type: Press release
17th April 2004
The global watchdog Privacy International has today simultaneously filed complaints against Google's controversial Gmail service with privacy regulators in sixteen countries.
The move creates Google's biggest challenge yet in the short but turbulent public debate over its new email service.
Complaints have been filed with the privacy and data protection regulators of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Poland,…