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Content Type: Advocacy
On 30 March 2022, the European Commission published a proposal for a directive empowering consumers for the green transition, which is is designed to enhancing consumer rights in making informed choices in order to play an active role in the transition to a climate-neutral society. At the moment, the proposal is being discussed by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection of the European Parliament.
PI welcomes the aim of the proposal to enhance consumer rights, particularly…
Content Type: Advocacy
Algorithmic management fundamentally relies on the availability of data to make decisions. The impact that these decisions can have on workers can be financially and emotionally devastating.
PI has previously exposed this issue through the Managed by Bots campaign - in which we called for the conditions under which data is collected and processed to be subjected to effective and robust scrutiny.
Content Type: Advocacy
Privacy International welcomes the opportunity to provide written input on the working draft of the WHO’s Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response accord (“WHO CAII”) published on 13 July 2022.
This submission is based on our research and assessment of data-reliant and tech-intensive measures deployed by governments and companies in response to Covid-19 and its aftermath, which documented how these measures impacted people’s fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to…
Content Type: Report
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) contributes significantly to security and privacy. For that reason, PI has long been in favour of the deployment of robust E2EE.Encryption is a way of securing digital communications using mathematical algorithms that protect the content of a communication while in transmission or storage. It has become essential to our modern digital communications, from personal emails to bank transactions. End-to-end encryption is a form of encryption that is even more private.…
Content Type: Advocacy
Read in English
Nosotros, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y los individuos abajo firmantes, instamos al Banco Mundial y a otras organizaciones internacionales a que tomen medidas inmediatas para cesar las actividades que promueven modelos perjudiciales de sistemas de identificación digital (ID digital).
Los firmantes de esta carta se encuentran en diferentes países, trabajan con diversas comunidades y aportan una amplia gama de conocimientos. Entre este grupo, hay muchas…
Content Type: Advocacy
We, the undersigned civil society organizations and individuals, urge the World Bank and other international organizations to take immediate steps to cease activities that promote harmful models of digital identification systems (digital ID).
The signatories of this letter are located in different countries, work with diverse communities, and bring a wide range of expertise. Among this group, there are many shared concerns and similar experiences documenting the harmful impacts…
Content Type: Advocacy
Today, PI filed a complaint with the Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) in relation to quality and accuracy issues in satellite-enabled Global Positioning System (GPS) tags used for Electronic Monitoring of subjects released from immigration detention (GPS tags). We are concerned there may be systemic failures in relation to the quality of data extracted from tags, processed and interpreted for use in investigations and criminal prosecutions.
The GPS tags are used by the Home Office to…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Privacy International (PI) has today filed complaints with the Information Commissioner (ICO) and Forensic Science Regulator (FSR) against the UK Home Office's use of GPS ankle tags to monitor migrants released on immigration bail. This policy and practice represents a seismic change in the surveillance of migrants in the UK. PI was first alerted to this scheme by organisations such as Bail for Immigration Detainees, an independent charity that exists to challenge immigration detention in the…
Content Type: News & Analysis
The relationship between privacy and access to abortion care
In 1973, in the state of Texas, it was a criminal offence to “procure or attempt” an abortion except if the purpose was “saving the life of the mother.” This law was enacted in 1854 by the Texas state legislature, and was part of a wave of provisions criminalising access to abortion care that was gaining ground across the U.S in the mid-1800s. It is worth highlighting that these laws were being passed at a time when women in the U.S…
Content Type: Advocacy
In our submission we outline our concerns with the industry as a result of extensive technical research and complaints taken to data protection authorities in Europe as a result.
Data brokers must specifically be included in "actors in scope."
We recommend that "data brokers" are specifically included in the list of "actors in scope". A data broker is a company that collects, buys and sells personal data and this is often how they earn their primary revenue. It is a term that is entering…
Content Type: Advocacy
Privacy International (PI) welcomes the call of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants to assess the human rights impact of current and newly established border management measures with the aim of identifying effective ways to prevent human rights violations at international borders, both on land and at sea.
The issues highlighted in the call for submissions are ones that PI has been investigating, reporting and monitoring as part of our campaigns demanding a human rights…
Content Type: Advocacy
Despite repeated recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly to review, amend or enact national laws to ensure respect and protection of the right to privacy, national laws are often inadequate and do not regulate, limit or prohibit surveillance powers of government agencies as well as data exploitative practices of companies.
Even when laws are in place, they are seldom enforced. In fact PI notes how it is often only following legal challenges in national or…
Content Type: Press release
To mark 10 years of the Home Office's hostile environment, a coalition of charities last night projected a vast message on the Home Office's Lunar House building in South London, to draw attention to Home Secretary Priti Patel's plans to GPS ankle tag thousands of migrants - a coercive, costly, and dehumanising measure.
As part of a week of events to mark 10 years of the "hostile environment", a set of policies designed to make life difficult for what…
Content Type: Advocacy
The proposal seeks to impose mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence on companies of a certain size that operate in certain sectors.
Our submissions address the very limited personal and material scope of the current draft of the Directive, which is unlikely to subject the most problematic technology and surveillance companies to the new due diligence obligations.
Content Type: Advocacy
Now is the time to strengthen not weaken data protection to keep us all safe. Here we outline some edited areas of our consultation response that highlight the impact of the proposed loss or weakening of many important protections:
The proposal to broadening consent and further processing for research purposes:
PI urges caution with regard to provisions that seek to potentially undermine the strict conditions around obtaining consent. The GDPR placed stronger conditions on obtaining consent…
Content Type: Report
Privacy International’s submissions for the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration inspection of the Home Office Satellite Tracking Service Programme
The Home Office have introduced 24/7 electronic monitoring and collection of the location data of migrants via GPS ankle tags. This seismic change cannot be overstated. The use of GPS tags and intention to use location data, kept for six years after the tag is removed, in immigration decision-making goes far beyond the mere…
Content Type: Advocacy
In line with WHO's commitment to a human rights-based approach to health, Privacy International believes the following elements procedural and substantive elements must be included:
Open, inclusive and multi-stakeholder process
The drafting and negotiation process of this international instrument must allow for the meaningful participation of a wide range of civil society organisations (CSOs) and reflect the commitment from the WHO and Member States to receive and respond to CSOs…
Content Type: Long Read
This piece is a part of a collection of research that demonstrates how data-intensive systems that are built to deliver reproductive and maternal healthcare are not adequately prioritising equality and privacy.
Digital health apps of all kinds are being used by people to better understand their bodies, their fertility, and to access health information. But there are concerns that the information people both knowingly and unknowing provide to the app, which can be very personal health…
Content Type: Explainer
Introduction/Background
Electronic tags have been a key part of criminal justice offender management for over 20 years, being used in the United States since the mid 1980’s and in the UK and some other commonwealth countries since 2003. In 2021 the UK introduced GPS tagging for immigration bail.
The tag is predominantly used to curtail the liberties of individuals. For those on criminal bail its intended use includes managing return into communities while deterring reoffending.
As we explore…
Content Type: Advocacy
We wrote to the Home Office as part of our campaign ‘STOP SPYING ON ASYLUM SEEKERS’, opposing the draconian surveillance of asylum seekers taking place through the Aspen Card.
We asked detailed questions about how data collected from Aspen Card usage is used to monitor asylum seekers, and how the Home Office are alerted to any ‘breach of conditions’ of the card.
In their reply, the Home Office told us that:
“The Home Office can be alerted to a breach of conditions by several internal and…
Content Type: News & Analysis
Last week, Privacy International intervened in an important and long overdue Judicial Review into the UK Home Office’s secret and blanket policy of seizing mobile phones of all migrants who arrived to the UK by small boat between April 2020 and November 2020.
The case revealed that migrants were searched on arrival at Tug Haven in Dover and compelled to hand over their mobile phones and provide their PIN numbers. During the course of proceedings it came to light that the Home Office had self-…
Content Type: News & Analysis
In a ruling handed down on 14 October 2021 by the High Court of Kenya in relation to an application filed by Katiba Institute calling for a halt to the rollout of the Huduma card in the absence of a data impact assessment, the Kenyan High Court found that the Data Protection Act applied retrospectively.
Background to the case
Huduma Namba as initially proposed
In January 2019, the Kenyan Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act No. 18 of 2018 came into effect, introducing a raft of amendments…
Content Type: Advocacy
The role that personal data plays in political campaigns https://privacyinternational.org/learn/data-and-elections and the risks of data abuse and exploitation only entered into the public discourse a few years ago, when Cambridge Analytica became a household name thanks to several scandals over the course of 2017 and 2018.
Since then, we have seen a flurry of initiatives that have helped shed light on the otherwise very opaque practices of digital campaigning. There have been public…
Content Type: Advocacy
Privacy International (PI) welcomes the aim of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to address some of the challenges posed by the way the current digital markets operate. As we noted in our preliminary assessment, the proposal put forward by the European Commission in December 2020 contains some shortcomings that need to be addressed, if the DMA were to be effective in tackling these challenges. Some of these shortcomings have been addressed, particularly by the European Parliament in its resolution…