News and Analysis

A year after the Eyes Wide Open program was launched here at Privacy International, we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the processes and justifications that agencies like GCHQ use to make their spying legally compliant. Tocqueville, a great philosopher of law stated: “If they prize

Late last year, the newly-elected government of Indonesia began to take steps which are almost unheard of today: reforming government communications surveillance powers. The much-needed development, on the back of the victory of President Joko Widodo, comes at a critical moment in the country's

UPDATE: Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has announced plans to disband Argentina's intelligence agency. Go here for more, and keep reading below. This post was originally published on 20 January 2015 by Privacy International's partner in Argentina, the Asociación por los

Intelligence sharing agreements can be open and transparent. In fact, the Five Eyes have already disclosed information sharing agreements that relate to key international law enforcement and national security measures. They’re called mutual legal assistance treaties, or MLATs, and they’ve existed

The following was written by Mike Rispoli, Communications Manager at Privacy International, and appeared in the 'Journalism in Europe' discussion series, hosted by Central European University: "The response by world leaders to the horrific terrorist attacks in France earlier this month has been all

15 January 2015 The following op-ed appeared in openDemocracy, written by Edin Omanovic, Research Officer at Privacy International: It's not surprising that some of the states in Central Asia spy on people. Authoritarianism across the world relies on the intrusion into, and lack thereof, of a

In the wake of tragic attacks in France, politicians from across the world are calling for dramatically expanded surveillance powers, to spy on our phonecalls, ban encrypted communications such as WhatsApp and iMessage, and store details about our international travels for years on end. If it feels

The right to privacy is on the frontline of a struggle that has seen a number of other constitutionally protected rights threatened during the last few bloody months of Kenya's ongoing security crisis. After at least 64 people were killed in two attacks by Al Shabaab militants in late 2014, members

Going into 2014, there were high hopes for advancing privacy protections and to finally have the debate around surveillance we've been clamouring for. Privacy was even Dictionary.com's word of the year in 2013. Europe was on the edge of passing new strong privacy laws, despite protests from industry

After remaining in the shadows for decades, the right to privacy is finally having its day in the sun at the United Nations. And rightfully so, given how seriously the right has been uniquely threatened in the past few years. Technology continues to rapidly evolve in the digital age, Western

In a recent trip to Colombia, Privacy International learned that the Colombian mobile phone network does not use any form of encryption. In this sense, Colombian communications are stuck in the 1990s, where cryptography was not yet widespread, and was still tightly controlled by governments who