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Content Type: News & Analysis
Imagine going to a peaceful protest and having to show your ID to the police before you can join it. Or having to fill out a form about why you are attending that particular protest.Sounds absurd, right? Surely we should all be free to protest, without the police knowing who we are?But high tech surveillance of protests is real, and it enables the police to identify, monitor and track protestors, indiscriminately and at scale.For example, your face is increasingly becoming your ID card with the…
Content Type: Explainer
‘Free to Protest: The protestor’s guide to police surveillance and how to avoid it’ (UK edition) is a collection of bite-sized guides about high-tech police surveillance capabilities at protests, including tips and strategies about how you can protect yourself from being identified, tracked and monitored. Each guide is self-contained so you don’t need to read the whole thing, or read it any particular order. You can access each separate section of the guide from the campaign homepage, but if…
Content Type: Explainer
What is social media monitoring?
Social media monitoring refers to the monitoring, gathering and analysis of information shared on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.
It may include snooping on content posted to public or private groups or pages. It may also involve “scraping” – grabbing all the data from a social media platform, including content you post and data about your behaviour (such as what you like and share).
Through scraping and other tools…
Content Type: Explainer
What are my 'unique identifiers' and where are they stored?
Your phone and your SIM card contain unique identifiers about you, which can be accessed by the police to identify you.
The IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) is a unique number associated with your SIM card. It doesn't change, even if you put the SIM card into a different phone.
If you have a mobile phone subscription, the IMSI will be associated with personal information such as your name and address.
The IMEI (…
Content Type: Explainer
Where are my communications stored?
Text messages/phone calls: Traditional cellphone communications happen over the cellular network. You usually access those with the text message and phone call apps that are provided as standard on your phone. While phone calls aren’t stored anywhere, text messages are stored locally on your and the recipient’s devices. They might also be temporarily stored by the network provider.
Messaging apps: Messaging platforms enable fairly secure communication…
Content Type: Explainer
Where is my phone's location data stored?
Your phone can be located in two main ways, using GPS or mobile network location:
1. GPS
GPS (that stands for Global Positioning System) uses satellite navigation to locate your phone fairly precisely (within a few metres), and relies on a GPS chip inside your handset.
Depending on the phone you use, your GPS location data might be stored locally and/or on a cloud service like Google Cloud or iCloud. It might also be collected by any app that you…
Content Type: Explainer
What is predictive policing?
Predictive policing programs are used by the police to estimate where and when crimes are likely to be committed – or who is likely to commit them. These programs work by feeding historic policing data through computer algorithms.
For example, a program might evaluate data about past crimes to predict where future crimes will happen – identifying ‘hot spots’ or ‘boxes’ on a map. But the data these programs use can be incomplete or biased, leading to a ‘feedback…
Content Type: Explainer
What is LEDS?
LEDS is a new mega-database currently being developed by the UK Home Office.
LEDS will replace and combine the existing Police National Database (PND) and the Police National Computer (PNC). The aim is to provide police and others with a super-database, with on-demand, at the point of need access, containing up-to-date and linked information about individuals’ lives.
Once your details are in LEDS, numerous agencies will have access to that information (e.g. HMRC and DVLA),…
Content Type: Explainer
What are police drones?
Drones are remotely controlled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of varying sizes.
They usually come equipped with cameras and might be enabled with Facial Recognition Technology.
Drones can be equipped with speakers, surveillance equipment, radar and communications interception tools, such as ‘IMSI catchers’.
How might drones be used during protests?
Camera-enabled drones may be used to remotely monitor and track people’s movements in public spaces, including at…
Content Type: Explainer
What do Body Worn Video cameras do?
Body worn video (BWV) cameras can be attached to a police officer’s clothing – often at chest, shoulder or head level – and record video, including sound, from the officer’s perspective.
BWV cameras will probably be visible to you, and when it’s recording, a flashing light should appear on the device.
How might body worn video cameras be used at a protest?
BWV cameras may be used at protests to monitor actions of protestors.
They do not usually…
Content Type: Explainer
What is gait recognition technology?
Gait recognition technology (GRT) can analyse the shape of an individual’s body and the unique way in which that body moves when walking or running, which can then be used to identify them.
GRT works in a similar way to facial recognition technology. But the two main differences are:
GRT may be used at a fairly long range (at the time of writing, about 165 feet / 50 metres), unlike FRT which generally requires more close up, detailed facial images…
Content Type: Explainer
What is Facial Recognition Technology?Facial recognition technology (FRT) collects and processes data about people’s faces, and can be used to identify people. FRT matches captured images with images stored in existing databases or ‘watchlists’.How might it be used in relation to a protest?FRT may be used to monitor, track and identify people’s faces in public spaces, including at protests. This may be done openly or surreptitiously, without people knowing or consenting.FRT-enabled cameras can…
Content Type: Explainer
What is hacking?
Hacking refers to finding vulnerabilities in electronic systems, either to report and repair them, or to exploit them.
Hacking can help to identify and fix security flaws in devices, networks and services that millions of people may use. But it can also be used to access our devices, collect information about us, and manipulate us and our devices in other ways.
Hacking comprises a range of ever-evolving techniques. It can be done remotely, but it can also include physical…
Content Type: Explainer
What is an IMSI catcher?
‘IMSI’ stands for ‘international mobile subscriber identity’, a number unique to your SIM card. IMSI catchers are also known as ‘Stingrays’.
An ‘IMSI catcher’ is a device that locates and then tracks all mobile phones that are connected to a phone network in its vicinity, by ‘catching’ the unique IMSI number.
It does this by pretending to be a mobile phone tower, tricking mobile phones nearby to connect to it, enabling it to then intercept the data from that phone…
Content Type: Explainer
What are ‘cloud extraction tools’ and what do they do?
Cloud extraction technology enables the police to access data stored in your ‘Cloud’ via your mobile phone or other devices.
The use of cloud extraction tools means the police can access data that you store online. Examples of apps that store data in the Cloud include Slack, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook and Uber.
How might cloud extraction tools be used at a protest?
In order to extract your cloud data, the police would…
Content Type: Video
Links
Useful info
Tech pill survey: pvcy.org/tpsurvey
How to minimise targeted ads: privacyinternational.org/act/minimise-targeted-ads
Protect yourself from online tracking: privacyinternational.org/act/protect-yourself-online-tracking
Social media account settings: privacyinternational.org/act/protect-yourself-social-media-monitoring
Our Onion address: privacyintyqcroe.onion
Episode Info
6:06 - reasons to delete apps you’re not using
8:00 - 4 things you should do first…
Content Type: Report
Privacy International has released a report summarising the result of its research into the databases and surveillance tools used by authorities across the UK’s borders, immigration, and citizenship system.
The report uses procurement, contractual, and other open-source data and aims to inform the work of civil society organisations and increase understanding of a vast yet highly opaque system upon which millions of people rely.
It also describes and maps…
Content Type: Report
Privacy International partnered with the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School to guide the reader through a simple presentation of the legal arguments explored by national courts around the world who have been tasked with national courts that discuss the negative implications of identity systems, particularly on human rights, and to present their judgement.
This argumentation guide seeks to fill that gap by providing a clear, centralised source of the arguments advanced in…
Content Type: Report
Many countries in the world have existing ID cards - of varying types and prevalence - there has been a new wave in recent years of state “digital identity” initiatives.
The systems that states put in place to identify citizens and non-citizens bring with them a great deal of risks.
This is particularly the case when they involve biometrics - the physical characteristics of a person, like fingerprints, iris scans, and facial photographs.
Activists and civil society organisations around the…
Content Type: Report
A common theme of all major pieces of national jurisprudence analyzing the rights implications of national identity system is an analysis of the systems’ impacts on the right to privacy.
The use of any data by the State including the implementation of an ID system must be done against this backdrop with respect for all fundamental human rights. The collection of data to be used in the system and the storage of data can each independently implicate privacy rights and involve overlapping and…
Content Type: Report
Identity systems frequently rely on the collection and storage of biometric data during system registration, to be compared with biometric data collected at the point of a given transaction requiring identity system verification.
While courts have arguably overstated the effectiveness and necessity of biometric data for identity verification in the past, the frequency of biometric authentication failure is frequently overlooked. These failures have the potential to have profoundly…
Content Type: Report
National identity systems naturally implicate data protection issues, given the high volume of data necessary for the systems’ functioning.
This wide range and high volume of data implicates raises the following issues:
consent as individuals should be aware and approve of their data’s collection, storage, and use if the system is to function lawfully. Despite this, identity systems often lack necessary safeguards requiring consent and the mandatory nature of systems ignores consent…
Content Type: Report
While identity systems pose grave dangers to the right to privacy, based on the particularities of the design and implementation of the ID system, they can also impact upon other fundamental rights and freedoms upheld by other international human rights instruments including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights such as the right to be free from unlawful discrimination, the right to liberty, the right to…
Content Type: Report
Rather than providing a list of arguments, as is the case in the other sections of this guide, the fifth section provides a general overview describing the absence of consideration of these themes in existing jurisprudence and the reasons why these themes warrant future consideration including identity systems’ implications for the rule of law, the role of international human rights law, and considerations of gender identity.
Democracy, the Rule of Law and Access to Justice: This analysis of…
Content Type: Video
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Episode notes
Useful info
How to minimise targeted ads: privacyinternational.org/act/minimise-targeted-ads
Protect yourself from online tracking: privacyinternational.org/act/protect-yourself-online-tracking
Social media account settings: privacyinternational.org/act/protect-…
Content Type: Explainer
The internet is filled with guides on how to file a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Depending on the country you are in, it is likely that a local NGO – or your national freedom of information authority. – will have come up with one. The Global Investigative Journalism Network has an excellent list of FOI resources available in many countries across every continent. We really recommend you take a look at it; many of the FOI guides we love are in that repository.At PI we equally spend much…
Content Type: Guide step
No aceptes solicitudes de amistad de gente desconocida.
Avísale a la gente que no quieres que publiquen tu sin tu consentimiento.
No publiques fotos de otras personas sin su consentimiento.
No publiques información delicada en tus fotos o en las leyendas.
No reveles tu ubicación/asegúrate de que los detalles en el fondo no revelen tu ubicación.
No uses hashtags que podrían revelar datos privados (o la ubicación).
Ten cautela cuando publiques fotos de tus hijos en las redes sociales.
Si…
Content Type: Guide step
Don’t accept friend requests from unknown people.
Let people know that you don’t want your picture posted without your consent.
Don’t post photos of other people without their consent.
Don’t post sensitive information in your photos or captions.
Don’t reveal your location/make sure the location is not revealed by background details.
Don’t use hashtags that may reveal private data (or the location).
Be wary when posting photos of your kids on social media.
If you log into your Facebook…