Privacy International

Hundreds of  companies around the world which develop and sell surveillance tech used  to spy on people, making everything from malware used by governments to  hack into phones to mass internet surveillance tools to monitor nationwide internet traffic. Italy is one of the main producers. We spoke to investigative journalists Lorenzo and Riccardo from IRPI Media who have been digging into these companies. Links You can check out IRPI Media at https://irpi.eu Their series on surveillance (in Italian) is at https://irpimedia.irpi.eu/sorveglianze/ Their report on Med-Or (in English) is at https://irpimedia.irpi.eu/en-surveillances-medor-leonardo-marco-minniti/ Their report on Cy4Gate (in English) is at https://irpimedia.irpi.eu/en-surveillances-cy4gate-united-arab-emirates/

The migration crisis in 2015 brutally exposed the divisions in Europe. People who fled  war and make it to Europe are being met with violence and intrusive  surveillance at the border at the hands of state authorities. We sat down with Natalie & Sergio from the Border Violence Monitoring Network to learn more about the situation at Europe’s borders. This is the first episode in our Border Surveillance series. Join us next week for Surveillance: Made in Italy and sold around the world. Links Josoor International Solidarity’s website is at https://www.josoor.net No Name Kitchen’s website https://www.nonamekitchen.org Border Violence Monitoring Network’s Website is at https://www.borderviolence.eu Their reports documenting violence and trends in Greece and the Balkans route are at https://www.borderviolence.eu/category/monthly-report/ Lighthouse Report’s investigations on pushbacks in the Aegean are available at https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/aegean-pushbacks-lead-to-drowning/ Priva

This is a brief programming note. The next three weeks we'll be releasing episodes of a new mini-series looking at how surveillance is  spreading around the world, driven by Europe’s war on migration and a  complex web of surveillance and arms companies. Join Edin, PI's advocacy director, and some fascinating guests every Friday for the next three weeks for: Border Surveillance.  Then we'll be back to our Technology Pill episodes. Enjoy!

This week talk to Franz Wild from the Bureau of Investigative Journalists to discuss how the UK became a haven for the private intelligence industry and how corporate spies have been allowed to run wild. Links: The Enablers by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/projects/the-enablers PI’s report: https://privacyinternational.org/report/4850/briefing-controlling-uks-private-surveillance-industry Submit your podcast questions: pvcy.org/questions Sign up to our mailing list: pvcy.org/podsignup

This week's episode is a grab bag of Clearview updates - from our latest campaign to their latest fine.  Links Italy fine: https://www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9751362 Our legal action: https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/challenge-against-clearview-ai-europe;  The ICO decision: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/4714/icos-announcement-about-clearview-ai-lot-more-just-ps17-million-fine Use of Clearview AI by police illegal under Belgian law, says Belgian interior minister: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/belgian-police-admit-using-controversial-facial-recognition-software/2388953 Clearview in Ukraine: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/4806/clearviewukraine-partnership-how-surveillance-companies-exploit-war Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/16/clearview-expansion-facial-recognition/ The pledge: https://pvcy.org/dodgydata

This week we're taking a look at NSO Group - a tech firm that sells a hacking capability to governments around the world - and government hacking more generally.  Links - Edin mentioned 'a journalist and her son' being targeted; their names are Carmen and Emilio Aristegui. You can find out more about people targeted in Mexico by a government buyer of NSO Group tech: https://citizenlab.ca/2017/06/reckless-exploit-mexico-nso/ - Keep up to date with ongoing litigation against NSO Group around the globe here: https://citizenlab.ca/2018/12/litigation-and-other-formal-complaints-concerning-targeted-digital-surveillance-and-the-digital-surveillance-industry/#NSO - Read our report, together with Amnesty International and SOMO, on NSO Group's corporate structure here: https://www.privacyinternational.org/report/4531/operating-shadows-inside-nso-groups-corporate-structure - Find more examples of harm involving NSO group here: https://privacyinternational.org/examples/nso-group - As revelations about the abuses of

In 2020, two weeks before the UK headed into the first nationwide lockdown, we published a podcast about a marketing company being given access to hospital maternity wards. Now, almost 2 years to the day, we're coming back to you with an update about how companies operating data broking services, as Bounty did, are causing headaches for brands using personal data for targeted advertising. Links More information about how Bounty illegally exploited the data of 14 million mothers and babies: https://pvcy.org/podillegalexploitation Sign up to our corporate exploitation email list to find out more about our work on brands and the advertising supply chain: https://pvcy.org/podsignup Original podcast: https://privacyinternational.org/video/3787/podcast-marketing-and-maternity ---------- Orginally Recorded 12th March 2020.  We can’t believe we’re having to say this, but the hours after giving birth are private. If you’re a parent, you may have heard of Bounty, a  sales and marketing company allowed acce

This episode we look back at the predictions we made about 2021, What turned out to be true? What turned out better than we could have hoped? What turned out worse?  Links Our predictions from 2021: pvcy.org/2021predictions Clearview UK provisional fine: pvcy.org/clearUKfine Clearview legal trouble in France: pvcy.org/clearFrance Clearview investments: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/technology/clearview-ai-valuation.html TRIPS waiver: https://www.devex.com/news/where-are-we-on-covid-19-after-a-year-of-trips-waiver-negotiations-101795 Travel podcast: pvcy.org/PITravel Patent-free vaccine: https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/patent-free-coronavirus-vaccine-protein-subunit/ Mental health podcast: pvcy.org/podmentalhealth David works for the Mental Health Foundation: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/ Google unionise: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/technology/google-employees-union.html The 'Great Resignation': https://www.ft.com/content/857bdeba-b61b-4012-ab82-3c9eb19506df PI has been working with t

In this episode we look forward at the rest of 2022 and make our predictions about what to look out for in the year ahead.  Links Teens and Facebook: https://fortune.com/2021/10/25/facebook-teens-usage-harm-studies/ Frances Haugen and Instagram: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59038506 Facebook and Metaverse: https://www.ft.com/content/76d40aac-034e-4e0b-95eb-c5d34146f647 Metaverse and Bandwidth: https://www.ft.com/content/09d244a2-34a2-4f62-9747-5064d76cb286 EFF on new Google replacement for cookies: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea Google's follow up plan to replace cookies: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-floc-cookies-chrome-topics EV cars and the national grid: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/electric-vehicle-charging-market The gates of hell: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/turkmenistan-gates-hell-fire-extinguish South Africa, Omicron, and travel: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/omicron-covid-africa-travel Patent-free covid vaccine: h

Merry Christmas. We hope you enjoy your day tomorrow. This week we're bringing you tips for how to spot and deal with things that worry you about the gifts you or your kids may recieve tomorrow. Links Donate to PI and get your facemask: pvcy.org/donatepill Mozilla's *privacy not included project: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/ US PIRG's Trouble in Toyland: https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/Trouble-In-Toyland Roomba home maps: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/9/6/17817220/irobot-roomba-i7-robot-vacuum-empties-itself-maps-house and concerns from 2017 about Roomba sharing that information: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/technology/roomba-irobot-data-privacy.html ICO advice: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2017/11/blog-the-12-ways-that-christmas-shoppers-can-keep-children-and-data-safe-when-buying-smart-toys-and-devices/ Our guides for protecting yourself from online tracking: https://privacyinternational.org/act/protect-yourself-online-tracking

Today we're launching our Data Interception Environment for everyone to use. We've used it to research everything from low cost phones, to menstruation apps, and now we’re making it available so that you can do your own research on how your apps use your data. Links You can read more about the DIE, including some of the research we've done that's used it here: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/data-interception-environment You can find our work about apps sharing data with Facebook here: https://privacyinternational.org/appdata You can download the DIE to have a go with it yourself here: https://github.com/privacyint/appdata-environment-desktop/tree/update-3

The ICO has provisionally issued a £17 million fine against facial recognition company Clearview AI Links Read more about the ICO's provisional decision here: https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/4706/victory-ico-provisionally-issues-ps17-million-fine-against-facial-recognition Support our work here: pvcy.org/donatepill You can find out more about Clearview by listening to our podcast: The end of privacy? The spread of facial recognition

This week we talk to Daniel Magson, who has been campaigning to stop diet ad companies from targeting people with eating disorders, and Eva Blum-Dumontet, who wrote PI's recent report on the data collected by diet companies. Links Daniel's petition: https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-ban-advertisers-from-targeting-eating-disorders PI's diet ads report: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/4603/unhealthy-diet-targeted-ads-investigation-how-diet-industry-exploits-our-data More information on Instagram, targeted ads, and Frances Haugen - the Facebook whistleblower: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/4622/reduce-facebooks-harms-teens-target-its-data-hungry-business-model

This week we talk to Juan Diego from Fundación Karisma - one of our  partners based in Colombia - about the use of technology in the response to the Covid pandemic and their report "Useless and Dangerous: A Critical Exploration of Covid Applications and Their Human Rights Impacts in Colombia".   You can find out more from Karisma here: https://web.karisma.org.co/   You can read the report here: https://web.karisma.org.co/useless-and-dangerous-a-critical-exploration-of-covid-applications-and-their-human-rights-impacts-in-colombia/

This week we talk to Massimo Marelli, Head of the Data Protection Office at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to discuss the use of data by humanitarian organisations in light of the serious concerns around data left behind in the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan and the risks presented by humanitarian agencies' increasing collection and use of data.  Links Find out more about PI's work with and on humanitarian organisations uses of data here: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/humanitarian-sector Read more about the Humanitarian Metadata Problem in our report on doing no harm in the digital age co-authored with the ICRC here: https://privacyinternational.org/report/2509/humanitarian-metadata-problem-doing-no-harm-digital-era  And you can learn more about the history of development and humanitarian donors and agencies rush to adopt new technologies that threaten the right to privacy - in out Aiding Surveillance report from 2013: https://privacyinternational.org/report/841/aid

In honour of Mental Health Awareness Day in the UK we're bringing back this episode from last year. We talk to Dr David Crepaz-Keay from the Mental Health Foundation to find out what happens to your data when you visit a mental health website? How can technology help people dealing with a mental health issue? And what can happen when things go wrong? Find out more about the Mental Health Foundation here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/ If you're worried about your mental health and want to try the NHS's mood self-assesment you can find it here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mood-self-assessment/ Read our work on mental health here: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/your-mental-health-sale

This week we take a look at travel during the pandemic - we chat to staff about where they've been, what it was like, and most importantly: how they got there. 

This week we come back from our break to chat to PI staff about what we've been reading or plan to read this summer. Links Lucie's recommedations - A history of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russel - John le Carré - La Horde du Contrevent by Alan Damasio - The Right to Choose by Gisèle Halimi Clara's recommendations - Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury - Republic of Lies by Anna Merlan - Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace Millie's recommendations - you might recognise Millie's voice from our Phone Extraction podcast - Cack-Handed: A Memoir by Gina Yashere - Man search for meaning by Viktor Frankl - Emma Barnet (mention) - Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart - Do Humankind's Best Days Lie Ahead? by Malcom Gladwell, Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker, and Alain de Botton Laura's recommendations - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - On Earth we're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong - Bleak House by Charles Dickens - A World for Julius by Alfredo Bryce

This week we’re talking to Andreea Belu - Campaigns and Communications Manager at EDRi - about evading facial recognition. We talk about our European Citizen's Iniative to ban facial recognition and how hard it is to guarantee that tools built to allow people to evade facial recognition will actually work.  Links  - You can find out more about the ECI here: pvcy.org/banbiometrics (If you're a European Citizen you can even sign it!)  - You can find EDRi's masks (and their masks for MEP programme) here: https://edri.org/take-action/donate-mask/ and you can find out more about the project here: https://edri.org/our-work/can-a-covid-19-face-mask-protect-you-from-facial-recognition-technology-too/  - You can take the Paper Bag Society challenge on mosts social media platforms - check out the #PaperBagSociety hashtag to find out more  - Watch this space (or sign up for our email at https://action.privacyinternational.org/) to find out more about how you can get a mask from PI  - T

This week we speak to Pallavi Bedi, Senior Policy Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society in India, about the technology being used in India to co-ordinate vaccine distribution and the response to the pandemic. Links You can find the Co-win vaccination website here: https://www.cowin.gov.in/ You can support PI at pvcy.org/donate and you can find out more about the Centre for Internet and Society at https://cis-india.org/ CIS also have a podcast, it’s called In flux and you can find it on all your favourite podcast apps and at https://in-flux.cis-india.org/ Like and subscribe to the podcast on which ever platform you use. It’s also available on our website at privacyinternational.org