News and Analysis

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News & Analysis

Have you seen your digital footprint lately?

We are the raw material of the new economy. Data about all of us is being prospected for, mined, refined and traded...and most of us don’t even know about it. Every time we go online, we add to a personal digital footprint that’s interconnected across multiple service providers, and enrich massive

Press release

Google Transparency Report for second half of 2012 shows European government attempts to access private data at an all-time high

Google's latest Transparency Report, released at 3pm GMT this afternoon, shows that requests by European governments for the browsing history, email communications, documents and IP addresses of Google's users have skyrocketed since the Transparency Report was launched three years ago. Countries in

News & Analysis

Bull quietly offloads controversial surveillance technology after Libya revelations

The social news website MiroirSocial.com confirmed yesterday that the prominent French technology firm Bull SA has sold its controversial mass surveillance "Eagle" system to Stéphane Salies, one of its chief designers and an ex-director of Bull. The surveillance software was previously manufactured

Press release

British government welcomes Foreign Affairs Committee recommendation to control exports of surveillance and censorship technology

In his response to the third report from the Foreign Affairs Committee Session 2012-13, Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed for the first time the government's firm commitment to putting in place new export controls on "telecommunications equipment for which there is a reasonable expectation

News & Analysis

Court Of Appeal Tells UK Government That Criminal Records Bureau Checks System Breaches Human Rights

Yesterday the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment in the case of R (on the application of T) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester & Others concerning the operation of the criminal records check system. The court was considering three cases that hinged on the same question: whether or not the

News & Analysis

In ex-Soviet states, Russian spy tech still watches you

On November 12, the Russian Supreme Court okayed the wiretapping of an opposition activist. The Court ruled that spying on Maxim Petlin, a regional opposition leader in Yekaterinburg, was lawful, since he had taken part in rallies where calls against extending the powers of Russia’s security

News & Analysis

HM Revenue & Customs must now investigate Gamma International for potential illegal exports

Privacy International’s campaign for effective export controls of surveillance technology is still ongoing, but for one company, action can already be taken by HM Revenue & Customs to hold stop their unethical practices. Here is the story so far... Privacy International has been investigating the

News & Analysis

Digitised oppression: Saudi electronic tracking system another step in the wrong direction for women’s rights

It was only last year that women in Saudi Arabia finally gained the right to vote. However, it seems a sad case of ‘one step forward, two steps back’, as this year it was discovered that all Saudi women are being electronically tracked by their male ‘guardians’, who are automatically sent text

News & Analysis

ICO publishes the Anonymisation Code of Practice

A full analysis of the UK Information Commissioner's "Anonymisation code of practice: managing data protection risk" will take time and working knowledge of how the code is used in practice. At the launch, the ICO signalled that while they believed the code was now up to scratch, they were open to

News & Analysis

The EURODAC debate: Do asylum-seekers deserve human rights?

Next week, the European Parliament will make an important decision affecting one of the world’s most vulnerable and stigmatised groups of people: asylum seekers. This decision is part of a larger debate about privacy and function creep, about authorities breaking promises that were made when

News & Analysis

Finally, a grown-up debate about communications surveillance

Twelve years after the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) was passed by the UK Parliament, permitting the interception of communications without a judicial warrant and allowing the police to self-authorise access to communications metadata, some parts of this dangerous law are finally

News & Analysis

PI is pleased to announce a public consultation on the International Principles on Communications Surveillance and Human Rights

Today we launch the public consultation process for the International Principles on Communications Surveillance and Human Rights. From now until January 3rd, we are inviting comments and suggestions on the draft principles. The rationale behind these principles is to provide civil society, industry

News & Analysis

Warrantless surveillance of private property deemed lawful in the US

Last month, US District Judge William Griesbach ruled that police can lawfully install covert digital surveillance cameras on private property without a warrant. Officers of the Drug Enforcement Agency had entered a property belonging to Marco Magana, which was littered with ‘no trespassing’ signs

News & Analysis

Recent international privacy developments

There have been two rounds of meetings in 2012 of the OECD Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) and some of its working parties – in May and October 2012, with further meeting of two working parties in December. A ‘foresight forum’ on the ‘big data’ theme was held on

News & Analysis

With New Promise Comes New Perils: ICTs And The Right To Privacy In Africa

One of the first things that strikes you about the chaotic East African metropolises of Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe is the blanket of adverts for mobile phone companies that covers them, from the walls of the immigration hall at Harare airport, to the rickety shacks that line the dusty streets of

News & Analysis

Eyes Wide Open: Unmasking the Five-Eyed monster

Privacy International is proud to announce our new project, Eyes Wide Open, which aims to pry open the Five Eyes arrangement and bring it under the rule of law. Read our Special Report "Eyes Wide Open" and learn more about the project below. For almost 70 years, a secret post-war alliance of five