News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

News & Analysis

US Border Cops Set to Use Biometrics to Build a Line Up of the World

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contracted one of the world’s largest arms companies to manage a huge expansion of its biometric surveillance programme. According to a presentation seen by Privacy International, the new system, known as Homeland Advanced Recognition

News & Analysis

Privacy International's evidence to the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence at the U.K. House of Lords

Privacy International’s Data Exploitation Programme Lead was invited to give evidence to the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence at the U.K. House of Lords. The session sought to establish how personal data should be owned, managed, valued, and used for the benefit of society. Link to the

News & Analysis

Privacy International launches the Surveillance Industry Index & New Accompanying Report

Privacy International launches the Surveillance Industry Index & New Accompanying Report Privacy International is today proud to release the Surveillance Industry Index (SII), the world's largest publicly available educational resource of data and documents of its kind on the surveillance industry

Press release

New Privacy International report shows that 21 European countries are unlawfully retaining personal data

Key points Privacy International surveyed 21 EU member states' legislation on data retention and examined their compliance with fundamental human rights standards 0 out of the 21 States examined by PI are currently in compliance with these standards (as interpreted in two landmark judgements by the

Press release

Privacy International Launches International Campaign For Greater Transparency Around Secretive Intelligence Sharing Activities Between Governments

Privacy International, in partnership with 30+ national human rights organisations, has today written to national intelligence oversight bodies in over 40 countries seeking information on the intelligence sharing activities of their governments. Countries may use secret intelligence sharing

News & Analysis

Can governments really hack your webcam?

The short answer is yes. I'm sure many of you have seen people with stickers over their webcams and wondered why (probably writing that person off as paranoid). But it's well known in tech circles that a camera in a computer or smartphone can be turned on remotely by an attacker with the resources

Long Read

BPD/BCD : Reference to CJEU October 2017

On 8 September 2017, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal decided to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) concerning the collection of bulk communications data (‘BCD’) by the Security Intelligence Agencies from mobile network operators. The BCD regime was initially

Press release

Privacy International makes recommendations to strengthen UK Data Protection Bill

While welcoming the objective of the Bill, Privacy International has sent a briefing to the House of Lords and a letter to Minister of State for Digital, Matt Hancock MP, outlining key concerns and recommendations. The Bill's stated aim is “to create a clear and coherent data protection regime”, and

News & Analysis

Who’s Afraid Of… e-Privacy?

We found this image here. On 11 October, the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament votes on the draft e-privacy regulation. As the landscape of generation, collection, and other processing of data in the digital sphere evolves, the proposal seeks to update the rules on confidentiality and

Press release

Press Release: Privacy International Back in Court to Challenge Bulk Government Hacking

On 5 October 2017, Privacy International will appear before the UK Court of Appeal to continue its challenge to the British government's large scale hacking powers. The case questions the decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) to sanction the UK government's power to hack broad

Press release

Privacy International Makes Recommendations To Strengthen UK Data Protection Bill

Long Read

Association Confraternelle de la Presse Judiciare and 11 Other Applications v. France

European Court of Human Rights Intervention On 15 September 2017, Privacy International filed an intervention to the European Court of Human Rights in Association Confraternelle de la Presse Judiciare and 11 Other Applications v. France. This case challenges various surveillance powers authorised

Long Read

Privacy International v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs et al. (Bulk Personal Datasets & Bulk Communications Data challenge) - Disclosure

Press release

Press Release: New Privacy International Report Shows That 21 European Countries Are Unlawfully Retaining Personal Data

News & Analysis

Macedonia: Time To Act On Government Surveillance

Privacy International and Metamorphosis have today written to authorities in Macedonia to provide information and call for assurances regarding government surveillance in Macedonia. For over two years, Macedonia has endured a prolonged and severe political crisis - including wide scale protests and

Long Read

In the U.S.-U.K. Deal, Both Sides Deserve Scrutiny

This piece was originally published in Just Security in August 2017 We recently published an analysis in Lawfare of the United Kingdom’s surveillance framework as it relates to the proposed U.S.-U.K. agreement for cross-border law enforcement data requests. Implementing the U.S.-U.K. agreement is