Reports

Reports, Long Reads, Country Reports

Long Read

Big Brother says ‘No’: Surveillance and income management of asylum seekers though the ASPEN Card

Governments across the world are building technologically integrated programmes to allow citizens to access welfare payments, and these could have adverse effects on those they should be supporting.

Long Read

How financial surveillance in the name of counter-terrorism fuels social exclusion

[Photo credit: Images Money] The global counter-terrorism agenda is driven by a group of powerful governments and industry with a vested political and economic interest in pushing for security solutions that increasingly rely on surveillance technologies at the expenses of human rights. To

Long Read

A technical look at Phone Extraction

Police officers who operate mobile phone extraction technologies often have little or no forensic training and are increasingly reliant on devices whose capabilities they do not understand, particularly as budgets are cut and the volume of data they have to cope with increases.

Long Read

The Identity Gatekeepers and the Future of Digital Identity

Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash Digital identity providers Around the world, we are seeing the growth of digital IDs, and companies looking to offer ways for people to prove their identity online and off. The UK is no exception; indeed, the trade body for the UK tech industry is calling for the

Long Read

Social media companies have failed to provide adequate advertising transparency to users globally

An analysis of what Facebook, Google, and Twitter have done to provide users with political ad transparency as of September 2019. Our full analysis is linked below. Recently the role of social media and search platforms in political campaigning and elections has come under scrutiny. Concerns range

Long Read

Buying a smart phone on the cheap? Privacy might be the price you have to pay

Research by Privacy International shows that cheap smartphones come with a hidden cost: pre-installed apps that can't be deleted and that leak your data.

Report

Challenging the Drivers of Surveillance: EU Access to Documents Requests

In September 2019, Privacy International filed 10 access to documents requests to EU bodies regarding the transfer of surveillance capabilities to non-EU countries. The requests seek documents providing information on the transfer of personal data, surveillance technology, training, financing, and

Long Read

The EU Funds Surveillance Around the World: Here's What Must be Done About it

Photo: Francesco Bellina Driven by the need to never again allow organised mass murder of the type inflicted during the Second World War, the European Union has brought its citizens unprecedented levels of peace underpinned by fundamental rights and freedoms. It plays an instrumental role in

Long Read

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjornmeansbear/4495318473

How difficult is it to understand why you’re seeing a political ad on social media?

We found this image here. Using Facebook, Google, and Twitter’s ad libraries, PI has tried to understand how political ads are targeted in the UK. This information – which should be very clear on political ads – is instead being squirreled away under multiple clicks and confusing headings

Report

Police extracting data from mobile phone

Old Law, New Tech and Continue Opacity: Police Scotland's use of mobile phone extraction

“...a mobile device is now a huge repository of sensitive data, which could provide a wealth of information about its owner. This has in turn led to the evolution of mobile device forensics, a branch of digital forensics, which deals with retrieving data from a mobile device.” The situation in

Long Read

No Body's Business But Mine: How Menstruation Apps Are Sharing Your Data

PI undertook dynamic analysis of various menstrution apps using its own data interception environment to look at the data they share with Facebook.

Long Read

Privacy International study shows your mental health is for sale

A study by Privacy International reveals how popular websites about depression in France, Germany and the UK share user data with advertisers, data brokers and large tech companies, while some depression test websites leak answers and test results with third parties. The findings raise serious concerns about compliance with European data protection and privacy laws.

Report

REPORT: Your mental health for sale

The full report of Privacy International's study on how popular websites about depression in France, Germany and the UK share user data with advertisers, data brokers and large tech companies, while some depression test websites leak answers and test results with third parties. The findings raise

Long Read

How intrusive is communications data?

It is common ground that bulk collection of content would be a deprivation of the right to privacy. That is an inexcusable or unjustifiable step too far. Repeatedly the Government whether in litigation or legislating, has emphasised that they are not taking content in bulk. Content is the forbidden

Report

Reading list

To develop our framework for researching and challenging problematic aspects of social benefits systems, we sought to assemble a set of readings to provide greater context for understanding the history of surveillance and social benefits systems, the role social benefits systems play in increasing

Long Read

Your adversary has a face

This blog is about our new Twitter bot, called @adversarybot. If you want to follow the account, please do watch the pinned 'Privacy Policy' tweet before you do so.