News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

Case Study

Mobile App Monetisation - Covert trackers in your pocket

Some apps on your phone have code from third parties that covertly tracks and collects data about you. With little to no transparency, your data is put up for sale. It can be used to target you with personalised ads, or even for policing if law enforcement happens to be the buyer.

Hand passing a small wrapped item to another hand

Case Study

Tracking as a service: ShareThis to be profiled!

If you've never made a website, you might have not heard of AddThis or ShareThis, but chances are you've encountered them. These services offer the "share" buttons that easily integrates into websites. However, this feature is also used by these companies to track visitors across the web.

Press release

PI launches reports on political ads transparency and micro-targeting

PI’s research reflects on the unequal transparency standards applied by social media platforms to political advertising globally, and the regulation of micro-targeting in six states.

News & Analysis

World map indicating countries where mandatory transparency tools apply

Online political ads - a study of inequality in transparency standards

In its new report, PI looks into the implementation of transparency tools by Facebook, Google and Twitter in relation to political advertising. This work was produced in collaboration with partner organisations InternetLab and ELSAM.

News & Analysis

On the hypocrisy of using privacy to justify unfair competition

2021 will see the unfolding of major challenges to the power of big platforms, like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. Most will revolve around our data and will be fought in the field of competition and anti-trust. Alarmingly companies are increasingly using privacy as a cloak to justify their privacy invasive practices.

Video

Podcast: The end of privacy? The spread of facial recognition

A year ago on Monday the New York Times published an article, by a fantastic tech journalist called Kashmir Hill, about a facial recognition company called Clearview AI called 'The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It' .

This episode we talk to a range of experts and journalist about who are Clearview? What are they doing? Why is their business model so problematic? And is the problem Clearview specific? Or is systemic?

Video

A green pill bottle surrounded by multicolour pills. Label reads Technology Pill, next to title 2021: What can we expect? It sits on a waveform

Podcast: 2021 - what can we expect?

We give you the run down on the things we expect and are excited for and sometimes apprehensive of in 2021 and give you the lowdown on what's written in your stars for the coming year.

News & Analysis

Press Release: European Commission green lights Google and Fitbit merger in a game-changing and disappointing decision for the rights of millions of Europeans

The European Commission has today concluded its review of Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit. Privacy International is disappointed that the Commission has decided to let the merger go through, allowing Google's extraordinary power to expand into wearables and sensitive health data.

Long Read

“Anytime and anywhere”: Vaccination passports, immunity certificates, and the permanent pandemic

The deployment of vaccines, and in particular any "vaccination passport or “immunity passport” or certificate linked to the vaccination, must respect human rights.

Press release

Privacy International takes its five-year battle against UK government’s hacking powers to the High Court

Following PI’s landmark Supreme Court win in 2019, we will be back in court on 8 and 9 December 2020 to resume our long-running fight against the UK government’s wide-ranging hacking and property interference powers.

Video

EU Exporting Surveillance: Outsourcing border controls

Podcast: EU Exporting Surveillance

This week we talk to Edin, PI's Advocacy Director, about documents obtained by he spent a year working on obtaining, that detail how EU agencies ‘outsource’ border controls to neighbouring countries.

News & Analysis

Here’s how a well-connected security company is quietly building mass biometric databases in West Africa with EU aid funds

Documents disclosed to Privacy International reveal how the European Union has been using aid funds to finance the development of biometric identity systems in countries in Africa as part of its response to migration, and highlight urgent concerns.

Long Read

Revealed: The EU Training Regime Teaching Neighbours How to Spy

Hundreds of slides obtained by Privacy International (PI) from an EU law enforcement training agency show how surveillance techniques are taught to security authorities in neighbouring countries.

Long Read

Borders Without Borders: How the EU is Exporting Surveillance in Bid to Outsource its Border Controls

Documents obtained by Privacy International (PI) detail how EU agencies ‘outsource’ border controls to neighbouring countries.

News & Analysis

PI collaborates with The Carter Center's election observation mission in Myanmar

The collaboration with PI seeks to explore how privacy and data protection issues and concerns can be incorporated into election observation methodology and operationalised in the election observation process. The Carter Center is a US based NGO that has been invited to observe 111 elections in 39 countries since 1989.

Video

Podcast: Your mental health for sale?

We talk to Dr David Crepaz-Keay from the Mental Health Foundation to find out what happens to your data when you visit a mental health website? How can technology help people dealing with a mental health issue? And what can happen when things go wrong?