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Content type: Examples
The 20 years since the 9/11 attacks have fundamentally changed the way the New York Police Department operates, leading it to use facial recognition software, licence plate readers, and mobile X-ray vans, among other surveillance tools for both detecting and blocking potential terrorist attacks and solving minor crimes. Surveillance drones monitor mass protests, antiterrorism officers interrogate protesters, and the NYPD’s Intelligence Division uses antiterror tactics against gang violence and…
Content type: Examples
Clashes between police and lockdown protesters have spawned reports of police brutality in Greece. Mobile phone footage of one such protest in March 2021 suggested that the police are using drones to surveil the protests, and some of those remanded have complained that they’ve been beaten and subjected to threats and sexual harassment while in custody. Disinfaux Collective has identified an individual caught on video throwing a petrol bomb as “either a police officer of the DRASI unit… or,under…
Content type: Examples
The Myanmar military are stopping people in the street, checking through the data on their phones, and taking them to jail if they find suspicious messages or photos. At least 5,100 people were still in jail many months after opposing the February 1, 2021 military takeover. The spontaneous searches also deter individuals from continuing to post on social media or lead them to create new accounts they hope will evade detection, and avoid crowded streets where police or soldiers are likely to be…
Content type: Examples
July 2021 saw violent protests that left 72 people dead and 1,300 in prison after former president Jacob Zuma was jailed for failing to appear before a constitutional court’s inquiry into corruption during his time in office. In response, the South African government deployed the military onto the streets in the provinces of Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal, and began monitoring social media platforms and tracking those who “are sharing false information and calling for civil disobedience”. President…
Content type: Examples
The South African government urged social media platforms to trace and remove posts that incite violence, share false information, and call for civil disobedience after a July 2021 series of spiralling protests sparked by the jailing of former president Jacob Zuka. A number of other African countries such as eSwatini, Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Niger, and the DRC have also been increasingly using tracking software, internet shutdowns, and social media monitoring during protests and elections.…
Content type: Examples
Following the largest protests seen on the island in decades, Cuba’s government introduced new social media regulations that make inciting acts that alter public order a crime, and ordered ISPs to shut off access for those who “spread fake news or hurt the image of the state”. Critics believe the new rules are intended to curb dissent, as the protests spread across the island from a small town, where the first protest was convened in an online forum and spread via a Facebook livestream. Deputy…
Content type: Examples
Israel is abandoning its longstanding tactic of raiding Palestinian homes for “intelligence mapping” in favour of digitised surveillance that includes a vast and sophisticated 20-year-old network of CCTV, ANPR, and IP cameras throughout the Old City in East Jerusalem (“Mabat 2000”), automated facial recognition-equipped checkpoints (provided by the domestic company AnyVision) between Israel and the occupied West Bank, and drone surveillance at Palestinian protests. The drones over weekly…
Content type: Video
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Links
Find out more about PI's work with and on humanitarian organisations uses of data here: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/humanitarian-sector
Read more about the Humanitarian Metadata Problem in our report on doing no harm in the digital age co-authored with the ICRC here: https://privacyinternational.org/report/2509/humanitarian-metadata-problem-doing-no-harm-digital-era
And you can learn more about the history of…
Content type: Long Read
Image source
This piece is a part of a collection of research that demonstrates how data-intensive systems that are built to deliver reproductive and maternal healthcare are not adequately prioritising equality and privacy.
Telemedicine describes the vast range of applications and technologies used to provide and manage healthcare remotely.
Telemedicine as its most basic refers to the transmission of data from a patient to a healthcare professional through a range of electronic…
Content type: Long Read
Governments around the world are increasingly making registration in national digital ID systems mandatory for populations, justifying its need on a range of issues from facilitating access to services, to national security and fighting against corruption. This is an attempt to create a "foundational identity" for an individual, or "a single source of truth" about who someone is, according to a government agency. These identity systems are run by governments, sometimes by private companies, or…
Content type: News & Analysis
Update: Based on the complaint, on 30 November 2021 the Ombudsman opened an inquiry into whether the European Commission failed to take into account human rights concerns or carry out human rights impact assessments before providing support to African countries to develop surveillance capabilities.
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Privacy International (PI) together with a coalition of human rights groups have today called on the European Ombudsman, the EU’s oversight body, to investigate evidence that the block is…
Content type: Long Read
In early August, the African Union (AU) issued a statement condemning Denmark’s Aliens Act which, among other things, allows Demark to relocate asylum seekers to countries outside the European Union while their cases are being processed.
The AU argues that this amounts to an abdication by Denmark of “…its international responsibility to provide asylum and protection to those that enter its territory…’’ More importantly, the AU says this is an “extension of the borders of such countries and an…
Content type: News & Analysis
Introduction
The European Parliament has adopted a nonbinding resolution against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by law enforcement in public spaces and a ban on facial recognition databases, such as the ones used by Clearview AI.
It is a significant and hugely welcome step in an ongoing campaign to ensure the EU leads the world in protecting against dangerous applications of AI within its borders.
The Resolution recognises the need to safeguard against application of AI and mass…
Content type: Advocacy
Some of the most vulnerable groups in Mexico are amongst the groups at risk from a draft General Population Law that creates a biometric “Unique Digital Identity Card” (CUID), argue civil society organisations. The proposed law has now reached the senate, and has raised serious concerns from civil society organisations. Led by our global partner in Mexico Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D), PI along with 25 organisations have signed a joint letter to the members of the senate,…
Content type: Advocacy
PI, together with 30 national and international civil society organisations (CSOs), release an open letter calling on Parliament and relevant stakeholders to halt and ban the use of live facial recognition technology (LFRT) by the police and private companies.We believe that the use of LFRT poses significant and unmitigable risks to our society. We do not believe that it can ever be safely deployed in public spaces or for mass surveillance purposes.The open letter comes as a result of a recent…
Content type: News & Analysis
After almost 20 years of presence of the Allied Forces in Afghanistan, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in February 2020 on the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. A few weeks before the final US troops were due to leave Afghanistan, the Taliban had already taken control of various main cities. They took over the capital, Kabul, on 15 August 2021, and on the same day the President of Afghanistan left the country.
As seen before with regime…
Content type: News & Analysis
Our relationship with ‘public space’ is being redefined, not just by a global pandemic, but also by a new era of biometric surveillance technologies. Biometric mass surveillance enables companies and authorities to track us based on unique personal data and identify us whenever, wherever we go.The increasing use of facial recognition and other biometric surveillance technologies – on our streets, in train stations, at protests, at sports matches and even in our global ‘town square’, Facebook –…
Content type: Long Read
India’s Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) is a system that collects vast amounts of data about pregnant people, children, and families. It is an initiative by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India, and was first trialled in 2009. It was then rolled out nation-wide in 2011. Its declared purpose, as stated in the press release accompanying it, was to facilitate “ensuring timely delivery of full spectrum of health care services to pregnant women and children up to 5 years of age…
Content type: Advocacy
On 6 August 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published its technical specifications and implementation guidance for “Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status” (DDCC:VS) following months of consultations. As governments around the world are deploying their own Covid-19 certificates, guidance from the global health agency was expected to set a global approach, and one that prioritises public health. As such, we would expect the WHO to identify what these…
Content type: News & Analysis
Today Apple announced a set of measures aimed at improving child safety in the USA. While well-intentioned, their plans risk opening the door to mass surveillance around the world while arguably doing little to improve child safety.
Among the measures, Apple has announced that it is to introduce “on-device machine learning” which would analyse attachments for sexually explicit material, send a warning, and begin scanning every photo stored on its customers’ iCloud in order to detect child…
Content type: News & Analysis
As Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories continue to publish crucial information about the potential targets of NSO Group’s spyware, we know this much already: something needs to be done.
But what exactly needs to be done is less obvious. Even though this is not the first time that the world has learned about major abuses by the surveillance industry (indeed, it’s not even the first time this month), it’s difficult to know what needs to change.
So how can the proliferation and use of…
Content type: News & Analysis
A new industry is offering border agencies around the world access to advanced space-based surveillance capabilities once reserved for the most advanced intelligence agencies. Using satellites able to track signals from satellite phones and other emitters, these companies are then selling access to the data obtained to anyone willing to pay, including UK and EU border agencies.
While such surveillance can and is being used to save lives, it can also be used for illegal ‘pull backs’ in…
Content type: Long Read
Additionally, in January 2020 Privacy International and UK-based NGO Liberty filed a new claim against MI5 and the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (the “Ungoverned Spaces Case”, this time, the case sought to hold MI5 and the SSHD accountable for systemic, long-term failures in the way they handle and retain millions of people’s personal data. As part of this claim, PI requested that the IPT re-opens parts of the original BPD/BCD. This aspect of…
Content type: News & Analysis
What happened
On 22 July 2021, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) issued a declaration on our challenge to the UK bulk communications regime finding that section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 (since repealed by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016) was incompatible with EU law human rights standards. The result of the judgment is that a decade’s worth of secret data capture has been held to be unlawful. The unlawfulness would have remained a secret but for PI’s work.
You…
Content type: Press release
Amnesty International, Privacy International and The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) have published a report uncovering NSO Group’s entire corporate structure, tracking the global money trail of both public and private investment into the lucrative spyware company.
Amnesty International and other rights groups have documented dozens of cases of NSO Group’s products being used by repressive governments across the world to put activists, journalists, and opposition…
Content type: Explainer
An array of digital technologies are being deployed in the context of border enforcement. Satellite and aerial surveillance are part of the surveillance toolkit and yet, they are also used by organisations seeking to hold government actions to account and improve efficacy of their own work. To effectively critique state use and delve into potential benefits of satellite and aerial surveillance, we must first understand it.
In this explainer we dig into a technology which many are aware of for…
Content type: News & Analysis
Last month, the World Health Organization published its guidance on Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health. Privacy International was one of the organisations that was tasked with reviewing the report. We want to start by acknowledging that this report is a very thorough one that does not shy away from acknowledging the risks and limitations of the use of AI in healthcare. As it is often the case with guidance notes of this kind, its effectiveness will depend on the…
Content type: Advocacy
En mai 2021, nous avons fait une soumission pour la 132ème session du Comité des droits de l’homme qui a eu lieu entre le 28 juin 2021 et le 23 juillet 2021 en relation avec la conformité de la France avec le Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques (PIDCP) avant l’adoption de la liste de points à traiter avant présentation de rapports (LoIPR).
Nous avons appelé le Comité des droits de l’homme de l’ONU à inclure dans la liste des questions au gouvernement français les points…
Content type: Advocacy
On May 2021, we made a submission for the 132nd Session of the Human Rights Committee that took place between 28 June 2021 and 23 July 2021 in relation to France’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) before the adoption of the List of issues prior to reporting (LoIPR).
We called the UN Human Rights Committee to include in the list of issues to the French government the following:
Emergency measures taken in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and…
Content type: News & Analysis
Around the world, we see migration authorities use technology to analyse the devices of asylum seekers. The UK via the Policing Bill includes immigration officers amongst those who can exercise powers to extract information from electronic devices. There are two overarching reasons why this is problematic:
The sole provision in the Policing Bill to extract information rests on voluntary provision and agreement, which fails to account for the power imbalance between individual and state. This…