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Content type: Examples
After an 18-month investigation involving interviews with 160 life insurance companies, in January 2019 New York Financial Services, the state's top financial regulator, announced it would allow life insurers to use data from social media and other non-traditional sources to set premium rates for its customers. Insurers will be required to demonstrate that their use of the information doesn't unfairly discriminate against specific customers. New York is the first state to issue specific…
Content type: Examples
In December 2018 Walmart was granted a patent for a new listening system for capturing and analysing sounds in shopping facilities. The system would be able to compare rustling shopping bags and cash register beeps to detect theft, monitor employee interactions with customers, and even listen to what customers are saying about products. The company said it had no plans to deploy the system in its retail stores. However, the patent shows that, like the systems in use in Amazon's cashier-less Go…
Content type: Examples
In February 2019, the World Food Programme, a United Nations aid agency, announced a five-year, $45 million partnership with the data analytics company Palantir. WFP, the world's largest humanitarian organisation focusing on hunger and food security, hoped that Palantir, better known for partnering with police and surveillance agencies, could help analyse large amounts of data to create new insights from the data WFP collects from the 90 million people in 80 countries to whom it distributes 3…
Content type: News & Analysis
Picture: XoMEoX CC BY 2.0
1. Definitions of ‘fraud’ lack transparency and are often deceptive. States often define ‘fraud’ in vague and overbroad terms, which creates a seemingly compelling catch-all justification for denying or terminating benefits. The general public will often support this political narrative unless they have a greater understanding of the realities facing social benefit claimants and their experience navigating confusing and complex social benefits systems.…
Content type: News & Analysis
Picture: Antti T. Nissinen, CC BY 2.0
In addition to the issues we highlighted in stage 1, where intrusive personal information is required in order to apply for social benefits, recipients who seek to maintain their social benefits are required to regularly disclose similar information and are also subjected to the numerous forms of surveillance described above.
1. Social benefits systems use monitoring to exert control over recipients. These systems are imbued with the…
Content type: News & Analysis
Picture: Christian Schnettelker
1. The process of applying for social benefits subjects people to humiliating and punishing scrutiny. It is gruelling and harmful in and of itself. It requires people to invest significant time and resources, and to disclose vast amounts of personal information. For example, people may be required to turn over troves of personal documents (such as documents that show people’s financial status, housing, income, family structure, and identity), provide biometric…
Content type: News & Analysis
On Tuesday, Twitter disclosed that it may have shared data on users with advertising partners, even if they have opted out from personalised ads, and shown people ads based on inferences made about the devices they use without permission. According to Twitter, the issue was fixed on Monday, even though it is not yet clear how many users have been affected.
This is not the first time that Twitter had to admit that it leaked user data to advertisers. In May 2019, the social…
Content type: Long Read
Image credit: Emil Sjöblom [ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)]
Prepaid SIM card use and mandatory SIM card registration laws are especially widespread in countries in Africa: these two factors can allow for a more pervasive system of mass surveillance of people who can access prepaid SIM cards, as well as exclusion from important civic spaces, social networks, and education and health care for people who cannot.
Mandatory SIM card registration laws require that people provide personal…
Content type: Advocacy
Dear Chair and Committee colleagues,
Privacy International is an international NGO, based in London, which works with partners around the world to challenge state and corporate surveillance and data exploitation. As part of our work, we have a dedicated programme “Defending Democracy and Dissent” where we advocate for limits on data exploitation throughout the electoral cycle.
We have been closely following the important work of the Committee. Prompted by the additional evidence provided…
Content type: News & Analysis
Picture Credit: US AID
US President Trump has been cutting aid to Central America, including a surprise cut of approximately $500m in aid to the “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, apparently as punishment for “doing absolutely nothing” to prevent emigration to the US.
What remains of the funds is largely and deliberately being repurposed for spending on the US’s own security interests: indeed, one area which his…
Content type: News & Analysis
Foto: US AID
El presidente estadounidense Trump ha estado recortando la ayuda a Centroamérica, incluyendo un recorte sorpresivo de aproximadamente 500 millones de dólares a los países del “Triángulo del Norte” (El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras), al parecer como castigo por “no haber hecho absolutamente nada” para impedir la emigración hacia los Estados Unidos.
Los fondos restantes están siendo reorientados,en su gran mayoría y deliberadamente, al gasto para…
Content type: Long Read
image from portal gda (cc)
Many people are still confused by what is 5G and what it means for them. With cities like London, New York or San Francisco now plastered with ads, talks about national security, and the deployment of 5G protocols being treated like an arms race, what happens to our privacy and security?
5G is the next generation of mobile networks, which is meant to be an evolution of the current 4G protocols that mobile providers have deployed over the last decade, and there are…
Content type: News & Analysis
While people may think that providing their photos and data is a small price to pay for the entertainment FaceApp offers, the app raises concerns about privacy, manipulation, and data exploitation—although these concerns are not necessarily unique to FaceApp.According to FaceApp's terms of use and privacy policy, people are giving FaceApp "a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license" to use or publish the…
Content type: Long Read
By Valentina Pavel, PI Mozilla-Ford Fellow, 2018-2019
Our digital environment is changing, fast. Nobody knows exactly what it’ll look like in five to ten years’ time, but we know that how we produce and share our data will change where we end up. We have to decide how to protect, enhance, and preserve our rights in a world where technology is everywhere and data is generated by every action. Key battles will be fought over who can access our data and how they may use it. It’s time to take…
Content type: Advocacy
Democratic engagement is increasingly mediated by digital technology. Whether through the use of social media platforms for political campaigning, biometric registration of voters and e-voting, police monitoring of political rallies and demonstrations using facial recognition, and other surveillance methods, technology is now infused into the political process.
These technologies rely on collecting, storing, and analysing personal information to operate. Much recent debate around…
Content type: Examples
More than 450 Amazon employees delivered a letter to Jeff Bezos and other Amazon executives, demanding that the company immediately stop selling facial recognition software to law enforcement, sever connections to companies like Palantir that help immigration authorities track and deport immigrants, and provide greater employee oversight when making ethical decisions. The employees protested against Amazon allowing its technologies to be used for mass surveillance and abused by those in power,…
Content type: Examples
In 2017, US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it would seek to use artificial intelligence to automatically evaluate the probability of a prospective immigrant “becoming a positively contributing member of society.” In a letter to acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, a group of 54 concerned computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and researchers objected to ICE’s proposal and demanded that ICE abandon this approach because it would be…
Content type: Examples
US Immigrations & Customs Enforcement (ICE) used social media monitoring to track groups and people in New York City associated with public events opposing the Trump administration’s policies, including ones related to immigration and gun control. The investigative branch of ICE created and circulated a spreadsheet, entitled ‘Anti-Trump Protest Spreadsheet 07/31/2018,” that provided details of events planned between July 31, 2018, and August 17, 2018. The spreadsheet pulled data from…
Content type: Examples
The US government created a database of more than 50 journalists and immigrant rights advocates, many of whom were American citizens, associated with the journey of migrants travelling from Central America to the Mexico-US border in late 2018. Officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had access to this database. This list allowed the…
Content type: Examples
A private intelligence company, LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, used social media to monitor more than 600 “Family Separation Day Protests” held across the United States on June 30, 2018, to oppose the Trump administration’s policy family separation policy. The policy was part of a “zero tolerance” approach to deter asylum seekers from coming to the United States by separating children from their parents. After collecting information about these protests through Facebook, including the precise…
Content type: Examples
Absher, an online platform and mobile phone app created by the Saudi Arabian government, can allow men to restrict women’s ability to travel, live in Saudi Arabia, or access government services. This app, which is available in the Google and Apple app stores, supports and enables the discriminatory male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia and violations of womens’ rights, including the right to leave and return to one’s own country. Because women in Saudi Arabia are required to have a male…
Content type: Examples
Bahrain has warned its citizens and residents could face legal action simply for following social media accounts it deems anti-government, which raises concerns about the ability of Bahraini citizens and residents to exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms. In May 2019, a state terrorism law was expanded to criminalise anyone “promoting, glorifying, justifying, approving or supporting acts which constitute terrorist activities,” whether within or outside Bahrain. The government’s…
Content type: Long Read
Photo By: Cpl. Joel Abshier
‘Biometrics’ describes the physiological and behavioural characteristics of individuals. This could be fingerprints, voice, face, retina and iris patterns, hand geometry, gait or DNA profiles. Because biometric data is particularly sensitive and revealing of individual’s characteristics and identity, it can be applied in a massive number of ways – and has the potential to be gravely abused.
Identification systems across the world increasingly rely on…
Content type: Long Read
Whilst innovation in technology and data processing have provided individuals and communities with new opportunities to exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms, this has not come without risks, and these opportunities have not been enjoyed by all equally and freely.
Our relationships and interactions with governments and industry have become increasingly dependent on us providing more and more data and information about ourselves. And, it’s not only the information we provide knowingly…
Content type: News & Analysis
Today, Privacy International, along with nine other NGOs including Liberty and Amnesty International, attended a hearing before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to revisit the Court's first ruling on our case challenging UK mass surveillance and intelligence sharing. In September 2018, the First Section of the ECtHR ruled that the UK government's mass interception program violates the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. Notwithstanding the positve aspects…
Content type: News & Analysis
By Ailidh Callander, Legal OfficerThis piece first appeared in the 500th edition of the Scottish Legal Action Group Journal (2019 SCOLAG (500, June) 124Political 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 opportunity…
Content type: News & Analysis
Citing inaccuracy, major manufacturer declines to combine facial recognition and body worn cameras - but accurate or not, real-time facial recognition should never be coupled with police body-worn cameras
Axon Enterprise Inc.—a major manufacturer of police body-worn cameras and digital evidence management systems that also partners with Microsoft to provide services to law enforcement—announced that the company would refrain from equipping police body-worn cameras with facial…
Content type: Long Read
Everyday objects and devices that can connect to the Internet -- known as the Internet of Things (IoT) or connected devices -- play an increasing role in crime scenes and are a target for law enforcement. Exploiting new technologies that are in our homes and on our bodies as part of criminal investigations and for use as evidence, raises new challenges and risks that have not been sufficiently explored.
We believe that a discussion on the exploitation of IoT by law enforcement would…
Content type: Report
Like many others, PI were alarmed at recent reports that Facebook have been making mobile phone numbers (which users believed to be) provided for the express purpose of "two-factor authentication" (2FA) both searchable, and a target for advertising by default.
One of the myriad ways Facebook displays targeted adverts to users is through so-called "Custom Audiences". These "custom audiences" are lists of contact details, including phone numbers and email addresses, uploaded by advertisers.…
Content type: Explainer
We look at the recently published report on forensic science in the UK, highlight concerns about police not understanding new tech used to extract data from mobile phones; the risk of making incorrect inferences and the general lack of understanding about the capabilities of these tools.
The delivery of justice depends on the integrity and accuracy of evidence and trust that society has in it. So starts the damning report of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select…