News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

News & Analysis

There's No Good Reason for Spy Agencies to Snoop on Humanitarian Groups

3 June 2014 The following article written by Carly Nyst, Privacy International's Legal Director, originially appeared on the Future Tense blog on Slate: The news that the CIA is no longer using vaccination programs as a front for spying operations may come as a relief to many humanitarian workers

News & Analysis

What Does GCHQ Know About Our Devices That We Don't?

While the initial disclosures by Edward Snowden revealed how US authorities are conducting mass surveillance on the world's communications, further reporting by the Guardian newspaper uncovered that UK intelligence services were just as involved in this global spying apparatus. Faced with the

Press release

Privacy International challenges GCHQ's unlawful hacking of computers, mobile phones

Privacy International today filed a legal complaint demanding an end to the unlawful hacking being carried out by GCHQ which, in partnership with the NSA, is infecting potentially millions of computer and mobile devices around the world with malicious software that gives them the ability to sweep up

Long Read

Explaining the Law behind Privacy International's Challenge to GCHQ's Hacking

Today, Privacy International lodged a legal challenge to GCHQ's extensive and intrusive hacking of personal computers and devices. Below, we answer a few questions about the law underlying our complaint, and why it matters. Is hacking legal? As a result of the Snowden revelations, we have learned

News & Analysis

After HMRC Ruling, What Will Government Do About Potentially Illegal Exports Of Surveillance Technology?

After two years of pressing the Government to come clean on what, if anything, they are doing to investigate the potentially illegal export of the spyware FinFisher, a ruling today by the Administrative Court in Privacy International’s favour marks a significant turning point in our long-running

Press release

High Court slams HMRC for unlawful concealing of information surrounding export of spyware FinFisher

In a damning judgment today the Administrative Court declared that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) acted unlawfully and “irrationally” in issuing blanket refusals into the status of any investigation into the potentially illegal export of the spyware FinFisher to repressive regimes by UK

News & Analysis

Intelligence Agencies And Workers’ Rights: Political Surveillance At Its Worst

May Day serves as a timely reminder that across their history, intelligence services have targeted trade unions and other organisations working for progressive social change. Intelligence agencies have sought to justify expanded surveillance capabilities on the basis of pressing national security

News & Analysis

NETMundial: a long way to go to combat mass surveillance

NETMundial – a global conference initiated by the Brazilian government – has produced ‘The Multi-stakeholder Statement of São Paulo’, a Roadmap and Principles on internet governance that could herald new respect for the right to privacy online. However, the outcome document fails to adequately

News & Analysis

Monitoring Centres: Force Multipliers From The Surveillance Industry

This year, an advanced surveillance system called the "Platform for Unified Monitoring and Analysis" will come online in Colombia. Frustrated with the the previous system, Esperanza, which only monitored telecommunications activity, the Colombian authorities turned to PUMA (Plataforma Única de

News & Analysis

Moving Forward? Kosovo Proposes Surveillance Law Giving Authorities Real-Time Access To Data

UPDATE: The Kosovar minister of European integration – Vlora Citaku – announced in a tweet on April 29th that the government has approved the law on the interception of telecommunications. The draft law will now be reviewed by the parliament. _________________________________________________________

News & Analysis

Proposed law in Pakistan invades privacy, grants government broad powers

The government of Pakistan is proposing a new law that significantly threatens privacy rights, in a blatant attempt to establish a legal regime containing broad powers when it comes to obtaining, retaining, and sharing data obtained through criminal investigations, including communications data. The

Press release

European Court invalidates Data Retention Directive, says mass surveillance of metadata interferes with right to privacy

The ruling today from the European Court of Justice, invalidating the European Union’s 2006 Data Retention Directive policy, was strong and unequivocal: the right to privacy provides a fundamental barrier between the individual and powerful institutions, and laws allowing for indiscriminate, blanket

Press release

New global coalition urges governments to keep surveillance technologies in check

World leaders must commit to keeping invasive surveillance systems and technologies out of the hands of dictators and oppressive regimes, said a new global coalition of human rights organizations as it launched today in Brussels. The Coalition Against Unlawful Surveillance Exports (CAUSE) – which

News & Analysis

A CAUSE worth fighting for: Regulating the unlawful surveillance trade

Global problems require global solutions. One of the significant emerging threats to human rights and democracy today is the incredible and mostly unaccountable spread of surveillance technologies. The rapid proliferation of these systems has created a shadowy billion-dollar industry, where

News & Analysis

UN must reject mass surveillance to protect global privacy rights

In response to a consultation being undertaken by the UN in accordance with December’s General Assembly resolution on the right to privacy in the digital age, Privacy International today called on the United Nations to recognise that mass surveillance is incompatible with human rights. The

News & Analysis

Following the money: How States are funding surveillance technologies

Surveillance companies selling mass and intrusive spy technologies to human rights-abusing governments often are benefitting from the financial and institutional support from their home government, revealing a more closely-linked relationship between the sector and the State than previously believed