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Image of signpost with poster 'big data is watching you'

Big tech companies must protect customer data from legal backdoors

Cloud extraction allows law enforcement agencies to take huge amounts of your data from the Cloud via a legal back door.

Long Read

Cloud extraction technology: the secret tech that lets government agencies collect masses of data from your apps

When government searches shift from the phone to the cloud: cloud extraction technology and ‘the future of mobile forensics’

Long Read

Alexa, what is hidden behind your contract with the NHS?

Exclusive - Privacy International obtains contract between the UK Department of Health and Amazon.

Long Read

Privacy is Security: an op-ed from Peru

Miguel Morachimo, Executive Director of Hiperderecho. Hiperderecho is a non-profit Peruvian organisation dedicated to facilitating public understanding and promoting respect for rights and freedoms in digital environments. The original version of this article was published in Spanish on Hiperderecho

Long Read

Inside Niger's New Biometric Voting System

Niger has recently joined other countries in creating a biometric database that will be used in the upcoming elections.

Long Read

Graphic illustrating that good cyber security means security for one is security for all

Filling the gaps on the understanding of cybersecurity and human rights across the world

The pressing need to fix our cybersecurity (mis)understandings Despite all the efforts made so far by different, cybersecurity remains a disputed concept. Some states are still approving cybersecurity laws as an excuse to increase their surveillance powers. Despite cybersecurity and cybercrime being

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