Challenging Public Private Surveillance Partnerships: A Handbook for Civil Society
As states around the world seek to expand their surveillance capabilities and harness the power of data to deliver public services, they are often tempted to use the services of private technology companies – through public-private partnerships (‘PPPs’). These collaborations are taking on a new form, diverging from traditional public procurement relationships and becoming much more co-dependent.
The privatisation of public responsibilities requires more scrutiny than ever to ensure human rights are not quietly abused. This is particularly true when the systems deployed are used for surveillance and mass processing of personal data. Private companies have been known to play with the limits of what can legally and ethically be done with individuals’ identities and data, without the same level of accountability required of public authorities – a significant affront to fundamental rights when used to deliver a public service.
Civil society has the power to expose the risks and issues that emerge from these partnerships, through investigation and public reporting. But identifying concrete risks and potential human rights abuses is not an easy task for anyone as it requires a multilevel understanding of the tech, law and governance mechanisms involved. Building on our own investigative work and on the expertise of our partners around the world, Privacy International has designed a handbook for civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, academics and individuals to navigate these partnerships, providing keys to obtain crucial information, understand the technology at stake and identify privacy and governance concerns.
To support anyone trying to find out more about a public-private surveillance partnership and identify key risks and issues, this handbook is divided in to four main sections: the first section covers investigative risks, the second section explains how to gather key information related to the partnership through a variety of means, the third section provides some methods to investigate the technology at play in the partnership, and the fourth section looks into governance concerns and safeguards, including international best practice, data protection issues, and other governance mechanisms.
The checklists provided at the end of this handbook can be used as an overview of key things to investigate, and to help you keep track of your work.
This handbook is intended to help you:
Investigate a public-private partnership, find out relevant information
Ask the right questions to the partners involved (private and public)
Identify concerns related to the technology involved and the governance of the partnership
Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) is a civil society organization based in Argentina that, since its foundation in 1995, works to defend and promote of civil and human rights in Argentina and Latin America.
On behalf of the Norwegian government, the Norwegian Intelligence Service has awarded Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace (“Kongsberg”) a four-year contract to supply satellite maritime surveillance data in order to cover Norwegian Areas of Interest. Kongsberg will produce three satellites and equip
Westminster Group PLC has ratified a ten-year, multi-million-pound contract to supply ground security operations and advanced detection, surveillance, and screening equipment, as well as maintenance, training, and support at one domestic and four international airports in the Democratic Republic of
As part of an agreement worth up to $20.8 million, Teledyne FLIR Defense will deliver ultra long-range multi-spectral imaging surveillance systems, or Star SAFIRE 380-HLD, to the Japan Maritime Defense Force, which will integrate them into the licenced Japan-based production version of the Sikorsky
The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration has awarded Saab a $245 million contract to provide the Swedish air force with a third GlobalEye surveillance aircraft and other services like those already in use in UAE. The contract runs until 2029. The air force is accelerating the schedule for
The US Air Force will give Capella Space Corp $15 million in funding to improve and scale its synthetic aperture radar to deliver enhanced resolution imagery. Capella also supplies technology to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, US Navy, US Space Force, and
It has been announced that the California Highway Patrol has signed a $1.6 million (for the first year) contract with Flock Safety to install 480 high-tech cameras on Oakland's streets and freeways to identify licence plates and catalogue passing vehicles by make, model, colour, and other features
The UK Home Office has renewed its 3 year long contract with Tekever to provide maritime surveillance as a service across the English Channel using its AR5 and AR3 model drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The AR5 system is a UAV that is intended to conduct surveillance missions
Under a new contract, Planet Labs PBC will provide the NATO Communications and Information Agency's Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space programme (APSS) with satellite data to aid in detailed tracking and analysis of foreign military activities and fill intelligence gaps. APSS is a multi
Under a new contract effective from October 2024 to December 2025, PureTech Systems, which specialises in geospatial AI-boosted video analytics, will deploy its command-and-control software in 22,600 square kilometers of the US border. The software will integrate the sensors attached to existing
Microsoft pitched the use of OpenAI's DALL-E software to support battlefield operations of the US Department of Defense, in seeming contravention of OpenAI's ban against working in the military field. One of the potential use cases proposed by Microsoft is to use DALL-E, OpenAI's image generation
Over 60 US cities and counties use Fusus, a "police technology platform that merges public and private cameras with predictive policing and other surveillance tools". Private surveillance camera owners are encouraged to enroll in a police-led program that enables the police to control these cameras
Investigating a public-private partnership comes with a number of legal, technical, and human risks that must be assessed before undertaking any action. These risks change with your research framework and the broader context within which the partnership operates. We suggest you identify and assess the risks related to your investigation project before anything else. To assist you with this task you may refer to the non-exhaustive lists below.
Obtaining adequate information about a public-private partnership is often difficult, especially when sensitive areas of government are involved, such as intelligence and law enforcement. Information about such activities is often purposefully withheld from the public and guarded by excessive laws and punishments.
Technologies at the heart of a public-private partnership can be surrounded by secrecy and opacity making it hard for external actors to assess the risks. From buzzwords to obscure technical terminology, getting a real sense of what the technology at stake is and what it actually does isn’t an easy job. This section is designed to guide you in finding more information about the technology, understanding it, and identifying potential flaws.
Through our investigative work and the work of our partners around the world, we have identified a number of persistent governance issues common to public-private partnerships. We have detailed each of our concerns, and relevant corresponding safeguards, here. In this section we provide some high-level guidance on how to identify these types of concerns.
