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Content type: Examples
The state of Utah gave the AI company Banjo real time access to state traffic cameras, CCTV, and public safety cameras, 911 emergency systems, location data for state-owned vehicles, and other data that the company says it's combining with information collected from social media, satellites, and various apps in order to detect anomalies in the real world and alert law enforcement to crimes as they are happening. The company claims its algorithm can do all this while stripping all personal data…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from IPANDETEC in Panamá wrote about privacy and personal data in the context of the COVID-19 response, stating that throughout Central America, data protection laws and patient privacy lean towards respecting their privacy before the scientific interest of their cases.
Link: https://www.ipandetec.org/2020/03/18/coronavirus-privacidad-datos/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from the Foundation for Media Alternatives in Philippines reported different ways in which the COVID-19 is impacting public health and privacy rights.
Link: https://www.fma.ph/2020/03/15/public-health-and-privacy-amid-covid-19-the-fma-digital-rights-report/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from the Centre for Internet & Society in India wonder themselves whether the use of an official chatbot to advance ‘right information’ is the most efficient way to handle misinformation?. In a recent example, a ministry released advisories on how homeopathy can prevent the coronavirus infection, which was proved to be false by many scientific sources. This heightens the problem of fake news or the spread of i.e. incorrect information as it comes from an official source.
Link…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Digital Rights Foundation in Pakistan wrote a piece analysing cases of privacy violations, misinformation, hate speech and other cases. As they said, the situation with regards to the Coronavirus is still developing in the country and Digital Rights Foundation, are keeping an eye out for the developments regarding the disease and also assessing how the digital rights sphere is being affected.
Link: https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/protecting-your-digital-rights-during-the-…
Content type: Examples
The controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI, which came to public attention for scraping billions of photos off social media sites to create a comprehensive facial recognition system, says it has offered to help US federal and three state agencies with contact tracing. The company claims its technology could use the cameras already in place to identify people in surveillance video in restaurants or stores where they may have come into contact with others who subsequently test…
Content type: Examples
Six weeks after British prime minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown, many workers in non-essential jobs across many sectors of the economy were nonetheless being forced to continue working in potentially dangerous situations such as call centres, offices, factories, warehouses, and English construction sites as cleaners, security guards, warehouse workers, and office staff. It was left up to their bosses to decide whether or not they could work from home. The government's own statistics…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Unwanted Witness in Uganda wrote a formal letter to the Ministry of Information Communications Technology and National Guidance demanding for strict observance of human rights for any intended use of surveillance technologies to fight COVID-19.
In a letter addressed to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of ICT, Hon. Vincent Bagiire and copied to Minister Judith Nabakooba, calls on government to respect its human rights obligation and restrain from exercising excessive…
Content type: Examples
At a cost to itself of £88,000 a week in salaries alone, Palantir has committed 45 engineers to a government data project intended to help predict surges in demand for the NHS during the pandemic. The company will be paid £1 a week for its work. Besides Palantir's work supporting the US Immigration Customs and Enforcement, a major concern is vendor lock-in that may make it difficult for NHSx to extract the insights Palantir helps it develop and move elsewhere.
https://tech.newstatesman.com/…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from SMEX in Lebanon analysed surveillance measures in the country.
Lebanon, like many other countries, has launched digital tools to help diagnose and monitor the spread of the outbreak. The tools launched by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) do not appear to harvest data, but they require excessive user permissions, which is particularly concerning given Lebanon’s weak legal framework for data protection.
Link: https://smex.org/what-the-lebanese-government-can-do-to…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Coding Rights in Brazil analysed 18 different Bills introduced to the Congress to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic (in Portuguese).
Link: https://www.codingrights.org/radar-legislativo-especial-covid-19-e-tecnologia/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Internet Lab in Brazil started a series of podcasts to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 in the country. They are all recorded and available in the website (in Portuguese).
Link: https://www.internetlab.org.br/pt/noticias/antivirus-um-programa-para-discutir-a-tecnologia-direitos-e-a-pandemia/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Hiperderecho in Peru proposed 15 measures to improve the COVID-19 app that the Peruvian Government is rolling out in the country (in Spanish).
Link: https://hiperderecho.org/2020/04/quince-propuestas-para-mejorar-la-aplicacion-del-gobierno-del-covid-19/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Tedic in Paraguay analysed different tech proposals from the Paraguayan government, saying that emergencies are not a 'blank check' for them to do whatever they want (in Spanish).
Link: https://www.tedic.org/noesunchequeenblanco/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Tedic in Paraguay analysed a government proposal to use drones to enforce the lockdown measures in that country (in Spanish).
Link: https://www.tedic.org/uso-de-drones-covid19/
Content type: Examples
The French government asked Apple to change the way its phones handle Bluetooth in order to accommodate the design of its contact tracing app. Downloading and installing the app will be voluntary, but the app will use a centralised design in which the data will be fed into a government server for processing.
Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/france-asks-apple-to-relax-iphone-security-for-coronavirus-tracking-app-development/
Writer: Charlie Osborne
Publication: ZDNet
Content type: Examples
The International Press Institute has found that in both democratic and autocratic states the public health crisis has given governments the excuse of preventing the spread of disinformation to exercise control over the media, whether by criminalising journalism or controlling the public narrative and restricting access to information about the pandemic. The International Federal of Journalists has also found that three-quarters of journalists report that working conditions have deteriorated…
Content type: Examples
In April, the US state of North Carolina's Dare County enacted a series of emergency declarations that establish checkpoints at all points where roads cross the county borders; travellers show an ID card with a Dare County address or a county-issued permit in order to enter the county. Dare County, which consists of barrier beaches and other islands on the Outer Banks of the coast, is served by only three roads in and out of the country, and all routes cross bridges or causeways. Because the…
Content type: Examples
At least 27 countries are using data from cellphone companies to track the movements of their citizens, and at least 30 have developed smartphone apps for the public to download. Fewer objections have been raised in countries with greater levels of success in containing the virus. However, although Turkey has one of the worst outbreaks there has been little pushback against the surveillance even though the government is forcibly tracking people over 65, who are not allowed to leave their homes…
Content type: Examples
In Colombia, Peru, and Panama, quarantine regulations assign men and women different days to go out. For transgender people, these gender-based restrictions mean discrimination and violence for law enforcement and others, leading to numerous complaints. In Bogota, where law enforcement has been instructed not to demand ID to prove gender and trans people are allowed to choose their day, one trans woman was stabbed by a man who said she was out on the wrong day, and another was blocked from…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Karisma in Colombia analysed three different technological solutions intending to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, finding vulnerabilities in them (in Spanish).
Link: https://web.karisma.org.co/que-sabemos-de-las-tres-herramientas-que-se-anuncian-como-soluciones-tecnologicas-para-el-manejo-del-covid-19/
Content type: Examples
Civil Society advocates, including PI, expressed their dissaproval of a letter from the Colombian Data Protection Authority, which was intending to give a blank exception to the government in relation with handling the pandemic.
Link (in Spanish): https://web.karisma.org.co/organizaciones-de-la-sociedad-civil-rechazan-circular-de-la-sic-sobre-uso-de-datos-personales-para-controlar-la-pandemia/
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Fundación Datos Protegidos in Chile also reacted to the Chilean Government App to handle the COVID-19 situation, and listed a series of critical regulatory points, demanding a multistakeholder instance to discuss them.
Link: https://datosprotegidos.org/declaracion-de-fundacion-datos-protegidos-sobre-app-anunciada-por-gobierno-de-chile-como-respuesta-a-covid19/ | Declaración de Fundación Datos Protegidos sobre app anunciada por Gobierno de Chile como respuesta a COVID19
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Derechos Digitales analysed the Chilean Government App to respond to the Corona Virus, saying that it will likely be useless and infringing on existing privacy rights (in Spanish)
Link: https://www.derechosdigitales.org/14387/coronapp-la-inutilidad-del-atajo-tecnologico-desplegado-por-el-gobierno-y-sus-riesgos/
Content type: Examples
From our partners from the Defenders Coalition: The civil society’s Police Reforms Working Group, comprised of twenty national human rights organisations, condemn the unnecessary and excessive use of force by Kenya Police Service officers yesterday at the Likoni Ferry Crossing, Mombasa. The police actions completely betrayed the specific responsibility bestowed upon them by the President; to facilitate orderly passage of commuters on the Likoni crossing.
Link to their reaction: https://…
Content type: Examples
Our partners from Right to Know campaign in South Africa produced this infosheet to simplify what the South African government has committed to doing in ensuring that the use of surveillance does not impact negatively on people’s rights to privacy and that necessary data protections are taken into cognizance, whilst the necessary safeguards are put in place to protect citizens during this period of COVID 19.
Link: https://www.r2k.org.za/2020/04/14/covid-19-surveillance-infosheet/
Content type: Examples
A number of incidents in which Zoom events in education settings were disrupted led the New York City school district to ban the use of Zoom for remote learning.
Among the Zoombombing incidents: saboteurs inserted racist and anti-Semitic messages into a virtual graduation ceremony at Oklahoma City University, displayed child abuse images for several seconds during a Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District Board of Education meeting, and displayed inappropriate material in a class in…
Content type: Examples
Academics have disclosed today a new vulnerability in the Bluetooth wireless protocol, broadly used to interconnect modern devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and smart IoT devices.
The vulnerability, codenamed BIAS (Bluetooth Impersonation AttackS), impacts the classic version of the Bluetooth protocol, also known as Basic Rate / Enhanced Data Rate, Bluetooth BR/EDR, or just Bluetooth Classic.
The BIAS attack
The BIAS security flaw resides in how devices handle the link key,…
Content type: Long Read
Covid Apps are on their way to a phone near you. Is it another case of tech-solutionism or a key tool in our healthcare response to the pandemic? It’s fair to say that nobody quite knows just yet.
We’ve been tracking these apps since the early days. We’ve been monitoring Apple and Google closely, have been involved in the UK’s app process, our partners in Chile and Peru have been tracking their governments’ apps, and more.
Of course privacy concerns arise. But only a simplistic analysis would…
Content type: Long Read
This research was commissioned as part of Privacy International’s global research into data exploitative technologies used to curtail women’s access to reproductive rights. Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project. Read about Privacy International’s Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project here and our research findings here.