Reports

Reports, Long Reads, Country Reports

Long Read
Six years after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents providing details about how states' mass surveillance programmes function, two states – the UK and South Africa – publicly admit using bulk interception capabilities. Both governments have been conducting bulk interception of internet
Long Read
Image credit: Emil Sjöblom [ ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)] Prepaid SIM card use and mandatory SIM card registration laws are especially widespread in countries in Africa: these two factors can allow for a more pervasive system of mass surveillance of people who can access prepaid SIM cards
Long Read
image from portal gda (cc) Many people are still confused by what is 5G and what it means for them. With cities like London, New York or San Francisco now plastered with ads, talks about national security, and the deployment of 5G protocols being treated like an arms race, what happens to our
Long Read
Photo by David Werbrouck on Unsplash This is an ongoing series about the ways in which those searching for abortion information and procedures are being traced and tracked online. This work is part of a broader programme of work aimed at safeguarding the dignity of people by challenging current
Long Read
By Valentina Pavel, PI Mozilla-Ford Fellow, 2018-2019 Our digital environment is changing, fast. Nobody knows exactly what it’ll look like in five to ten years’ time, but we know that how we produce and share our data will change where we end up. We have to decide how to protect, enhance, and
Long Read
Photo By: Cpl. Joel Abshier ‘Biometrics’ describes the physiological and behavioural characteristics of individuals. This could be fingerprints, voice, face, retina and iris patterns, hand geometry, gait or DNA profiles. Because biometric data is particularly sensitive and revealing of individual’s
Long Read
Whilst innovation in technology and data processing have provided individuals and communities with new opportunities to exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms, this has not come without risks, and these opportunities have not been enjoyed by all equally and freely. Our relationships and
Long Read
Everyday objects and devices that can connect to the Internet -- known as the Internet of Things (IoT) or connected devices -- play an increasing role in crime scenes and are a target for law enforcement. Exploiting new technologies that are in our homes and on our bodies as part of criminal
Report
Like many others, PI were alarmed at recent reports that Facebook have been making mobile phone numbers (which users believed to be) provided for the express purpose of "two-factor authentication" (2FA) both searchable, and a target for advertising by default. One of the myriad ways Facebook
Long Read
The white paper that outlines the rationale for the new currency makes a number of heady statements, some which anyone who cares about rights should commend -- and some which should be challenged.
Long Read
The UK public, regulators, and parliamentarians have all expressed concern about the wide use of third-party data by all political parties in the UK and its impact on privacy and democracy. In the week the remaining six candidates to be the UK’s next Prime Minister are reduced to two, Privacy
Long Read
Join our campaign with Liberty and write to your local Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC). Your PCC works on your behalf to hold your local police force to account, so you can share your concerns about police spying tech with them. You can download our new campaign pack (pdf link at the bottom of
Long Read
IMAGE SOURCE: "My Phone Bought This" by oliver t is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. LAST UPDATE: 16th May 2022. Mandatory SIM card registration laws require people to provide personal information, including a valid ID or even their biometrics, as a condition for purchasing or activating a SIM card
Long Read
When you go abroad, you expect to show your passport right? But what if immigration authorities wanted access to your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts before they let you enter a country? What if they wanted to vet you based on your updates, photos, likes, retweets and even your DMs? We
Case Study
  • The story of an investigative journalist highlights shows the concrete risks that call-blocking apps like TrueCaller present for people in vulnerable situations.
  • TrueCaller is an app particularly popular in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. TrueCaller identifies the numbers calling you, so you can filter out undesirable phone calls and make sure you pick up a call you have been expecting, even if you have not previously registered the number.
  • Every time a user makes or receives a phone call from a number not already in the TrueCaller database, TrueCaller offers the user the option to “tag” the number so it can be entered in the TrueCaller database, under the name entered by the user.
Long Read
Like millions of other people, you use messaging apps, social media, share, read and watch content on your phone or computer. If that’s the case then hundreds of AdTech companies collect and exchange your data every single day. AdTech, a short form of advertisement technology, is a catch-all term