News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

News & Analysis
Privacy International has been doing work on the UK-based digital identity company, Yoti. We have raised concerns about their use of user data for their 'Yoti Age Scan' product. As we say in our analysis: Yoti Age Scan is just one example of digital identity. The issues ... can be used to reflect on
Long Read
The pressing need to fix our cybersecurity (mis)understandings Despite all the efforts made so far by different, cybersecurity remains a disputed concept. Some states are still approving cybersecurity laws as an excuse to increase their surveillance powers. Despite cybersecurity and cybercrime being
News & Analysis
CC: BY (Kirill Sharkovski)-SA Este artículo fue escrito por Jamila Venturini, Coordinadora regional de Derechos Digitales. El artículo fue publicado por primera vez aquí. This article is available in English. La implementación de programas que condicionan el acceso a servicios básicos por medio de
News & Analysis
Picture: CC: BY (Kirill Sharkovski)-SA This article was written by Jamila Venturini from Derechos Digitales. The original version (in Spanish) is available here. How implementing social protection programmes that condition access to basic services to state and private surveillance exacerbate the
News & Analysis
Photo by Ray Witlin / World Bank CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 This article has been written by Ambika Tandon, Policy Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Privacy International. On October 17th 2019 , the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip
Press release
Tomorrow, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights will present his annual report to the UN General Assembly in New York on digital technology, social protection and human rights. On the same day, Privacy International will be launching its own series on surveillance in the
Long Read

Governments across the world are building technologically integrated programmes to allow citizens to access welfare payments, and these could have adverse effects on those they should be supporting.

News & Analysis
Photo by VanveenJF on Unsplash Last week, Amnesty International published a report revealing the Moroccan government appears to have been using spyware from Israeli company NSO Group against two human rights defenders, historian and columnist Maati Monjib and lawyer Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui. In
Long Read
[Photo credit: Images Money] The global counter-terrorism agenda is driven by a group of powerful governments and industry with a vested political and economic interest in pushing for security solutions that increasingly rely on surveillance technologies at the expenses of human rights. To
Long Read
Police officers who operate mobile phone extraction technologies often have little or no forensic training and are increasingly reliant on devices whose capabilities they do not understand, particularly as budgets are cut and the volume of data they have to cope with increases.
News & Analysis
On 11 October 2019, Privacy International together with EDRi, BEUC, AccessNow and Open Society European Policy Institute, sent an open letter to EU Member States, to urge them to conclude the negotiations on the ePrivacy Regulation. The letter highlights the urgent need for a strong ePrivacy
Long Read
Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash Digital identity providers Around the world, we are seeing the growth of digital IDs, and companies looking to offer ways for people to prove their identity online and off. The UK is no exception; indeed, the trade body for the UK tech industry is calling for the
News & Analysis
The latest news of Twitter “inadvertently” sharing email addresses or phone numbers provided for safety or security purposes (for example, two-factor authentication) for advertising purposes is extremely concerning for several reasons. First of all, it is not the first time for Twitter 's used
News & Analysis
Photo by Daniel Jensen on Unsplash Everyone is talking about Facebook's end-to-end encryption plans and the US, UK and Australian government's response. Feeling lost? Here is what you need to know. What's Facebook trying to do? First let's be clear: Facebook has many faults when it comes to privacy
News & Analysis
Today’s announcement regarding the UK and US agreement signed pursuant to the US CLOUD Act is being touted on both sides of the Atlantic as a major victory for law enforcement and security. But it is a step backward for privacy. And it’s far more complicated than their press release and letter to
Long Read
An analysis of what Facebook, Google, and Twitter have done to provide users with political ad transparency as of September 2019. Our full analysis is linked below. Recently the role of social media and search platforms in political campaigning and elections has come under scrutiny. Concerns range