News and Analysis

N&A, Long Reads, Press Release

News & Analysis

In Argentina, It’s Not Too Late To Make Things Right Regarding Privacy

We are calling on the government of Argentina to take the necessary steps to ensure they comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including Article 17, in relation to ensuring independent oversight, transparency and accountability of the current or future organs involved in surveillance.

News & Analysis

National Security Certificates: Broad exemptions from the data protection regime will have consequences for our data protection rights and for adequacy

This piece was written by PI Legal Office Millie Graham Wood. “The UK is leading the way on modern data protection laws and we have worked closely with our EU partners to develop world leading data protection standards” [1] according to, Matt Hancock MP, Minister of State for Digital. However, the

Press release

Landmark UK Surveillance Case To Be Heard In Strasbourg Tomorrow

The European Court of Human Rights will hear a landmark case on surveillance tomorrow (7 November) as part of a challenge to the lawfulness of the UK’s surveillance laws and its intelligence agencies’ mass surveillance practices. See the attached briefing for case background and historical

Long Read

Gobierno Paraguayo Veta Ley De Registro Biométrico De Usuarios Móviles

Photo Credit: AU UN IST / Tobin Jones El 25 de septiembre 2017, el presidente de Paraguay objetó la totalidad de una propuesta de Ley denominada “ que regula la activación del servicio de telefonía móvil”, disponiendo la creación de un registro de huellas dactilares de todos los usuarios de

Press release

Privacy International Files Lawsuit To Compel Disclosure Of Secretive 1946 Surveillance Agreement

Privacy International has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to compel disclosure of records relating to a 1946 surveillance agreement between the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, known as the “Five Eyes alliance”.* We are represented by Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access

News & Analysis

Smart Cities: better for whom?

October 31st 2017 will mark the 3rd World Cities Day (we will forgive if you did not know that), with the general theme “ Better City, Better Life.” On this date, PI will be launching its latest report “Smart Cities: Utopian Vision, Dystopian Reality”. This is an opportunity for us to ask: who

News & Analysis

Most cities are already ‘smart’ – just, not for the people who live in them

Do you live in a smart city? Chances are you do. But it is probably just not smart for you.

Long Read

Why we are so concerned about Government Hacking for Surveillance

Government hacking is unlike any other form of existing surveillance technique. Hacking is an attempt to understand a system better than it understands itself, and then nudging it to do what the hacker wants. Fundamentally speaking, hacking is therefore about causing technologies to act in a manner

News & Analysis

Biometrics knows no borders, it must be subject to extreme vetting

Biometrics Know No Borders, They Must Be Subject To Extreme Vetting

From unlocking a smartphone or getting through an airport, the use of an iris, fingerprint, or your face for identity verification is already widespread, and the market for it is set to rocket. While the technology is not new, its capability and uses are. As people, biometrics offers us much, but

News & Analysis

US Border Cops Set to Use Biometrics to Build a Line Up of the World

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contracted one of the world’s largest arms companies to manage a huge expansion of its biometric surveillance programme. According to a presentation seen by Privacy International, the new system, known as Homeland Advanced Recognition

News & Analysis

Privacy International's evidence to the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence at the U.K. House of Lords

Privacy International’s Data Exploitation Programme Lead was invited to give evidence to the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence at the U.K. House of Lords. The session sought to establish how personal data should be owned, managed, valued, and used for the benefit of society. Link to the

News & Analysis

Privacy International launches the Surveillance Industry Index & New Accompanying Report

Privacy International launches the Surveillance Industry Index & New Accompanying Report Privacy International is today proud to release the Surveillance Industry Index (SII), the world's largest publicly available educational resource of data and documents of its kind on the surveillance industry

Press release

New Privacy International report shows that 21 European countries are unlawfully retaining personal data

Key points Privacy International surveyed 21 EU member states' legislation on data retention and examined their compliance with fundamental human rights standards 0 out of the 21 States examined by PI are currently in compliance with these standards (as interpreted in two landmark judgements by the

Press release

Privacy International Launches International Campaign For Greater Transparency Around Secretive Intelligence Sharing Activities Between Governments

Privacy International, in partnership with 30+ national human rights organisations, has today written to national intelligence oversight bodies in over 40 countries seeking information on the intelligence sharing activities of their governments. Countries may use secret intelligence sharing

News & Analysis

Can governments really hack your webcam?

The short answer is yes. I'm sure many of you have seen people with stickers over their webcams and wondered why (probably writing that person off as paranoid). But it's well known in tech circles that a camera in a computer or smartphone can be turned on remotely by an attacker with the resources

Long Read

BPD/BCD : Reference to CJEU October 2017

On 8 September 2017, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal decided to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) concerning the collection of bulk communications data (‘BCD’) by the Security Intelligence Agencies from mobile network operators. The BCD regime was initially