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Content type: News & Analysis
A new report by the UN Working Group on mercenaries analyses the impact of the use of private military and security services in immigration and border management on the rights of migrants, and highlights the responsibilities of private actors in human rights abuses as well as lack of oversight and, ultimately, of accountability of the system.
Governments worldwide have prioritised an approach to immigration that criminalises the act of migration and focuses on security.
Today, borders are not…
Content type: Examples
After governments in many parts of the world began mandating wearing masks when out in public, researchers in China and the US published datasets of images of masked faces scraped from social media sites to use as training data for AI facial recognition models. Researchers from the startup Workaround, who published the COVID19 Mask image Dataset to Github in April 2020 claimed the images were not private because they were posted on Instagram and therefore permission from the posters was not…
Content type: News & Analysis
Back in January, Privacy International and over 50 other organisations wrote to Google asking the company to take action over pre-installed apps that cannot be deleted (often known as “bloatware”), which can leave users vulnerable to their data being collected, shared and exposed without their knowledge or consent. Thousands of people from over 50 countries signed our petition supporting this ask. We welcome the constructive conversations we had with Google following this campaign and for the…
Content type: News & Analysis
In the last few weeks, the UK government has announced various new measures to ensure that crossings across the Channel were “inviable” including by appointing a new role of “clandestine Channel threat commander" and further plans to deploy the navy to stop migrants from crossing to the UK from France across the Channel. Premature plans it seems, as not only would such measures be contrary to the UK’s international obligations to allow individuals to seek asylum in the UK, but also since such…
Content type: Long Read
The Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS) is a unified, common interface to a new mega-database currently being developed by the Home Office National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP).
It might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world (and it isn't!) - but it will have a profound impact on policing and surveillance in the UK for generations.
We believe that the development of the programme poses a threat to privacy and other rights and must be subjected to strong oversight,…
Content type: Explainer
In the name of reinforcing migration control and increasing security, the EU is introducing a host of new surveillance measures aimed at short-term visitors to the Schengen area. New tools and technologies being introduced as part of the visa application process and the incoming “travel authorisation” requirement include automated profiling systems, a ‘pre-crime’ watchlist, and the automated cross-checking of numerous national, European and international databases. There are significant risks…
Content type: News & Analysis
Banning TikTok? It's time to fix the out-of-control data exploitation industry - not a symptom of it
Chinese apps and tech companies have been at the forefront of the news recently. Following India's ban of 59 chinese apps in July, President Trump announced his desire to ban TikTok, shortly followed by his backing of Microsoft's intention to buy the US branch of its parent company ByteDance. Other than others lip syncing his public declaration, what does President Trump fear from this app, run by a firm, based in China?
It's all about that data
One clear answer emerges: the exploitation of…
Content type: Explainer
At first glance, infrared temperature checks would appear to provide much-needed reassurance for people concerned about their own health, as well as that of loved ones and colleagues, as the lockdown is lifted. More people are beginning to travel, and are re-entering offices, airports, and other contained public and private spaces. Thermal imaging cameras are presented as an effective way to detect if someone has one of the symptoms of the coronavirus - a temperature.
However, there is little…
Content type: News & Analysis
New technologies continue to present great risks and opportunities for any users but for some communities the implications and harms can have severe consequences and one of the sectors facing increasing challenges to keep innovating whilst protecting themselves and the people they serve is the humanitarian sector.
Over the course of engagement with the humanitarian sector, one of our key observations has been how risk assessments undertaken in the sector omitted to integrate a hollistic…
Content type: Examples
The October 2019 Presidential Decree 98/2019 granted the Hellenic Police the option of using drones in policing and border management for broad purposes; previously they were limited to using them for purposes such as preventing forest fires or helping rescue people after a natural disaster or an accident. By spring 2020, the Hellenic Police had begun using their new powers in cities such as Athens and Thessaloniki to enforce compliance with lockdown measures instituted to curb the spread of…
Content type: News & Analysis
The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin together with Dr. Krisztina Huszti-Orbán, released today a key report on the “Use of Biometric Data to Identify Terrorists: Best Practice or Risky Business?”.
The report explores the human rights risks involved in the deployment of biometrics emphasising that
in the absence of robust rights protections which are institutionally embedded…
Content type: Examples
Public-private partnership launches biometrics identity and vaccination record system in West Africa
In July 2020 a public-private partnership programme between the Bill Gates-backed GAVI vaccine alliance, Mastercard, and the AI identity authentication company Trust Stamp was ready to introduce a biometric identity platform in low-income remote communities in West Africa. The programme will integrate Trust Stamp’s digital identity platform into the GAVI-Mastercards “Wellness Pass”, a digital vaccination record and identity system powered by Mastercard’s AI and machine learning technology,…
Content type: Examples
After some employers were caught asking for such information, in mid-June 2020 the Spanish data protection authority warned that it is a violation of data protection laws to screen job candidates based on whether they have had and recovered from COVID-19 and developed antibodies. This type of information is personal health data and is covered by article 9 of the GDPR.
https://www.aepd.es/es/prensa-y-comunicacion/notas-de-prensa/comunicado-AEPD-covid-19-oferta-busqueda-empleo
Writer: AEPD…
Content type: Examples
In April, as the crisis in Italy began to ease, some Italian health officials and politicians, among them Luca Zaia, the regional president of the northeastern region of Veneto, began to propose a “Covid Pass” that would Italians who have antibodies showing they have had and recovered from the coronavirus to exit the lockdown and go back to work. Veneto, adjacent to the hardest-hit area, Lombardy, planned to begin collecting 100,000 blood samples from people across the region for the purpose of…
Content type: Examples
On June 24, Israeli ministers reversed a previous decision and unanimously decided to support controversial legislation allowing the Israeli security service Shin Bet to track civilians’ phones to help curb the spread of the coronavirus after a new spike in infections. On June 30 the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee voted to advance the legislation, which must go on to pass its second and third readings. The legislation is designated as “temporary” and will last until July 22 while…
Content type: Examples
Between June 25 and July 6 India said officials would visit every household in New Delhi’s entire population of 29 million to record each resident’s health details and administer a COVID-19 test. In the meantime, police, along with surveillance cameras and drone monitoring, will enforce physical distancing and prevent the population from mixing inside the capital’s 200-plus containment zones. The move follows a spike in cases and the discovery of large clusters of cases in the capital that have…
Content type: Examples
La Quadrature du Net and La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme have won a ruling from the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administration court, making drones equipped with cameras and flying low enough to detect individuals by their clothing or a distinctive sign illegal. During the lockdown, French police having been using hundreds of drones to monitor and capture images of people in the stret who may not be respecting the lockdown rules, as well as to broadcast audio sanitation instructions.…
Content type: Examples
After analysing spending by 30 million US Chase credit and debit cardholders in conjunction with coronavirus case data from Johns Hopkins University, JP Morgan found that the level of card-present spending in restaurants can predict where the virus will spread a few weeks later. The study also found a correlation between increased spending in supermarkets with increased social distancing and therefore a slower viral spread.
https://fortune.com/2020/06/26/is-it-safe-restaurant-coronavirus-cases…
Content type: Examples
The UK Government outsourced some of the testing centre work to Deloitte. The contract states that Deloit does not have to share data of positive cases with the UK health authority Public Health England nor to local government authorities. This prevented data sharing that was arguably essential to public health surveillance.
https://twitter.com/johnharris1969/status/1278259630628618241
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/01/why-is-there-a-delay-in-sharing-covid-19-test-data-…
Content type: Examples
A group of Democratic US Senators and Congressional Representatives have written to Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar asking for more transparency around the HHS Protect Now programme, which collects vast amounts of data, including coronavirus test results, from the CDC and state and local sources and analyses it using technology from Palantir. The letter asked whether any of the data gathered would be shared with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Palantir has helped to…
Content type: Examples
An Israeli government panel tasked with managing the coronavirus crisis green-lighted a bill that would write into law the government’s authority to impose emergency regulations and froze a bill that would allow the Shin Bet security agency to track confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients. The latter move may end the Israeli government’s use of the secret service’s capabilities for combatting the pandemic. Shin Bet’s head, Nadav Argaman, reportedly told ministers that his defence agency…
Content type: Examples
Thermal temperature scanners, software keystroke monitors, and wearable location trackers are proliferating in US workplaces, with the data they collect outside of any of the country's electronic privacy laws. Companies report that employers are being asked to form part of the front line of contact tracing for COVID-19 and share data on a wholly new level. Even before the pandemic, employers sought to keep employee data exempt from the CCPA; privacy activists eventually won a one-year…
Content type: Examples
Researchers are scraping social media posts for images of mask-covered faces to use to improve facial recognition algorithms. In April, researchers published to Github the COVID19 Mask Image Dataset, which contains more than 1,200 images taken from Instagram; in March, Wuhan researchers compiled the Real World Masked Face Dataset, a database of more than 5,000 photos of 525 people they found online. The researchers have justified the appropriation by saying images posted to Instagram are public…
Content type: Examples
Many of the steps suggested in a draft programme for China-style mass surveillance in the US are being promoted and implemented as part of the government’s response to the pandemic, perhaps due to the overlap of membership between the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, the body that drafted the programme, and the advisory task forces charged with guiding the government’s plans to reopen the economy. The draft, obtained by EPIC in a FOIA request, is aimed at ensuring that…
Content type: Examples
After the CEO of NHSx told the the UK parliament that data harvested by the NHSx contact tracing app would be retained for future research, the UK Ministry of Defence said it would turn the data over to its Jhub to sanitise the data and remove all personally identifying information before passing it on to NHSx. The app was due for improvements to its security after the code was released on Github and the app was trialled on the Isle of Wight.
https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/20/…
Content type: Examples
The Israeli company Kando is monitoring coronavirus traces in the sewers of the city of Ashkelon via sensors, autosamplers, and controllers placed under manholes in an attempt to build an early warning system of clusters of COVID-19. The system was originally developed to spot industrial waste within the municipal sewage system. In a month-long pilot with scientists and mathematicians in Israel, Europe, and the US, Kando found that its findings matched the health ministry’s data showing the…
Content type: Examples
US state and local authorities are using data from a host of location tracking companies, some of them little-known, such as X-Mode Social, Foursquare Labs, Cuebiq, Unacast, Phunware, and SafeGraph, to help them decide how and when to reopen. Many of these companies are part of the adtech industry and collect location data from unrelated apps to which users have given permission to access their location. Apple’s and Google’s refusal to allow contact tracing apps using their system to access…
Content type: Examples
Nepal will deport five foreign tourists and ban them from re-entering the country for two years after they joined protests demanding better quarantine facilities, more testing, and transparency in procuring medical supplies. Four tourists - three from China and one from the US - were arrested and fined NPR10,000 ($82.75). An Australian tourist was also arrested, and fined twice much because he also took pictures of the protests. A Norwegian woman married to a Nepali was fined NPR5,000, but was…
Content type: Examples
Nearly six months after the emergence of the coronavirus, only 7.1% of research on COVID-19 references AI compared to 12% of research on other topics. AI is being used to make predictive analyses of patient data, especially medical scans, and analyse social media data, predict the spread of the disease, and develop biomedical applications. Although there are many opportunities to apply AI to prevent, diagnose, and treat the virus, the required substantial investments in hardware and changes in…