Public action

Long Read

police officer through camera lens graphic

Fact sheet on photographing police officers at a protest

An overview of relevant considerations if and when photographing or filming police at a protest (UK edition).

News & Analysis

Can we be free to protest in an age of high tech police surveillance of protests?

Read our new ‘Free to Protest’ guides and learn about the high tech surveillance tools that enable the police to identify, monitor and track protestors, indiscriminately and at scale - and find out how you can better protect yourself.

Explainer

How social media monitoring can be used at a protest

A brief guide to how social media monitoring can be used at a protest, and how you can minimise risks to your data (UK edition)

Explainer

How the police can access your phone's 'unique identifiers' at a protest

The police can access your mobile phone’s ‘unique identifiers’. Learn how to maintain your anonymity (UK edition).

Explainer

How the police can access your digital communications at a protest

The police can access your digital communications. Learn how to limit the risk.

Explainer

Graphic of a desktop computer with map on screen

How the police can determine your location at a protest

If the police seize your phone during a protest, they can gain access to your location data. Here's how to better control access to your data (UK edition).

Explainer

Police officer walking into back of phone

How hacking can be used at a protest

A brief guide to how hacking can be used at protests and how you can minimise risks to your data (UK edition).

Explainer

What is an Aspen Card and why does it need reform?

An 'Aspen Card' is a debit payment card given to UK asylum seekers by the Home Office. The Aspen Card provides basic subsistence support, but purchases on the card are closely monitored by the Home Office, making it an insidious surveillance tool.

Video

An asylum seeker's testimony: ‘I realised that I was at the mercy of the system because I did not know how things work’

This real life testimony of a UK asylum seeker's experience of using their 'Aspen Card' payment card, explores the stress and anxiety caused by both the Home Office's surveillance of their purchases and the highly punitive measures that it can then take.

Video

An asylum seeker's testimony: ‘I feel like I am being watched by the Home Office everywhere I go’

Video

An asylum seeker's testimony: ‘My support was cut off by the Home Office because of Aspen monitoring’

News & Analysis

Can we get our internet back now please?

The internet was meant to be different. No one would own the internet. No one could own the internet. The internet belonged to all of us. So how did it all go wrong?

Video

Cassetteboy vs Boris vs Covid

This satirical video is a critique of the UK government's reliance on 'technological solutionism' in the fight against Coronavirus and increasingly across public services more widely, and their willingness to then scapegoat ‘mutant algorithms’ when their hopes for technological panaceas inevitably fail.

Press release

algorithm shtick quote from Casseteboy video

Press release: Cassetteboy and Privacy International launch a new ‘mashup’ video, skewering the UK Government’s technological response to the public health crisis

Privacy International today launch a specially commissioned video by Cassetteboy, about the UK government’s technological hubris in response to the Coronavirus crisis.

Long Read

The impact of our public campaign against the proposed Google/Fitbit merger

During summer 2020, over 2,500 people signed PI's public petition opposing the proposed Google/Fitbit merger. We sent the petition to the European Commission, who are yet to decide if the merger can proceed. The Commission responded by thanking petitioners for their concerns and cooperation, just as they opened a detailed phase 2 investigation into the merger.

News & Analysis

Pass Notes on the proposed Google / Fitbit merger

Google knows so much about you, and now it wants your health data too. Read our ‘Pass Notes’ for a quick summary of the issues and then please join our campaign to stop them!