Privacy International

This week we speak to Ioannis, a senior lawyer at PI, about his and his colleague's work on the landmark case protecting encyrption at the European Court of Human Rights: Podchasov v. Russia. The case dealt with a Russian law obliging telecommunications service providers to indiscriminately retain content and communications data for certain time periods, as well as a 2017 disclosure order by the Russian Federal Security Service requiring Telegram Messenger company to disclose technical information which would facilitate “the decoding of communications”. Links: PI case page: https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/podchasov-v-russia ECtHR judgment in the Podchasov case: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-230854 PI's work on encryption: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/encryption PI's report on End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): https://privacyinternational.org/report/4949/securing-privacy-end-end-encryption More information about the Marper case: http://www.genewatch.org/sub-56314

What do you know about cryptography? Have you ever wanted to get a better understanding of some of the maths behind encryption? This week we speak to Ed, a Senior Technologist at PI, about some of the history and basics of encryption. Find out more about encryption: - Computerphile on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile) is a computer science professor with a range of useful and accessible videos on encryption - Cloudflare have a helpful learning centre including this article on how encryption works and why cloudflare use Lava lamps to generate keys: https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/ssl/lava-lamp-encryption/ - This is a helpful article on Diffie-Hellman including a diagram of the colours demonstration, which Ed discusses during the podcast: https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/diffie-hellman-key-exchange/ - This article is great for learning more about hashing: https://auth0.com/blog/hashing-in-action-understanding-bcrypt/ - And if you're interested here is the wik

This week we speak to Mark Nelson, a car mechanic and father of five, who has been forced to wear a GPS tag by the Home Office for the past 20 months, and his lawyer Katie Schwarzmann of Wilsons Solicitors. The pair have been challenging the Home Office's ongoing imposition of GPS tracking on Mark in the courts and are now awaiting a judgement. We explore the legal case, the ways the tag hasn't worked for long periods of time, and a dubious AI the Home Office has been using in decisions as to whether someone remains on a GPS tag. Links - Read more from Katie's law firm, Wilsons Solicitors, about the case: https://www.wilsonllp.co.uk/news/high-court-hears-first-challenge-to-the-governments-policy-of-gps-tagging-migrants - PI's Complaint to the ICO (the UK's Data Protection Authority): https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/ico-complaint-against-uks-gps-tagging-migrants - Read more about relevant cases in which PI has filed witness evidence: https://privacyinternational.org/leg

This week we talk about good things (or good-ish things) that you might have missed from 2023! Links Companies getting disciplined - Ovulation Tracking App Premom Will be Barred from Sharing Health Data for Advertising Under Proposed FTC Order https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ovulation-tracking-app-premom-will-be-barred-sharing-health-data-advertising-under-proposed-ftc - Facebook getting fined for data exploitation in Norway: https://dig.watch/updates/meta-fined-98500-daily-over-user-privacy-breach-in-norway - CNIL fines Criteo: https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/5075/global-adtech-company-criteo-fined-eu40-million-france-unlawfully-collecting - CNIL fines Doctissimo: https://edpb.europa.eu/news/national-news/2023/health-data-and-use-cookies-french-sa-fines-doctissimo_en - Worldcoin (aspires to be World ID) has been getting some pushback from some countries: https://www.citizen.digital/news/data-protection-office-says-worldcoin-likely-to-tamper-with-data-from-kenyans

This week we have a think about generative AI. After a concerning Guardian article about deep fake scams, we ask the question: did we really understand the risks when we started a podcast? The audio clips featured in this podcast episode are the intellectual property of Smart Energy GB (Clip 1), Kim Kardashian (Clip 2), the Hollywood Reporter (Clip 3) and Lucasfilm Ltd (Clip 4). All rights are reserved to their copyright owners. Other links: - Experience: scammers used AI to fake my daughter’s kidnap: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/aug/04/experience-scammers-used-ai-to-fake-my-daughters-kidnap - 23 and Me hack: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/23andme-investigating-apparent-credential-stuffing-hack-a-23267 - Deepfakes Can Help Families Mourn—or Exploit Their Grief: https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-death-grief-hologram-photography-film/

This week we speak to competition expert Dr Deni Mantzari about competition, monopoly, and regulation. Are big tech companies monopolies? And if they are is that a problem? Since we recorded this podcast there has been an update on the Microsoft Activision merger: https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/13/23796552/microsoft-activision-blizzard-cma-approval-uk Links PI competition page (our "very influential work"): https://privacyinternational.org/learn/competition-and-data More about Dr Deni Mantzari: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/24171 Ecosystems and competition law in theory and practice - a research paper about ecosystems: https://academic.oup.com/icc/article/30/5/1199/6428760 Power Imbalances in Online Marketplaces: At the Crossroads of Competition Law and Regulation - one of Dr Deni's papers looking at peconomic dependence in online marketplaces: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/cles/sites/cles/files/cles_4_2021.pdf Google Android European court case on abuse of dominance: https://curia.europa.eu

This month we speak to Dr Leonie Tanczer about her work looking at tech abuse: the use of “everyday” digital systems (computers, smartphones, apps) to coerce, control, and harm a person or groups of individuals. This is increasingly prevalent in the context of domestic abuse - around 85% of victims and survivors in the UK have been subjected to some form of tech abuse. Links Refuge's Tech Safety resources: https://refugetechsafety.org/ Refuge's Tech Safety smart home devices tool: https://refugetechsafety.org/hometech/ Read more about Dr Tanczer and her work: https://www.leonietanczer.net/about.html Find out more about the Gender and Tech at UCL and sign up to the newsletter: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/computer-science/research/research-groups/gender-and-tech PI's guides to improve your own device security: https://privacyinternational.org/act UK MPs discuss smart tech and abuse: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/07/uk-mps-warn-use-smart-tech-domestic-abuse Connected technology

In this episode we chat with Ben Wizner - Edward Snowden's lawyer, and the director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project - and Caroline Wilson Palow - PI's Legal Director about what it was like to be knee deep in the legal and policy responses to Snowden's revelations, holding British and US intelligence agencies to account for secret powers. Additional audio from The Guardian and from Channel 4 News via the Guardian Links What is Tempora? ⁠https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/21/gchq-cables-secret-world-communications-nsa⁠ Taking angle grinders to the Guardian's hard drives: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/31/footage-released-guardian-editors-snowden-hard-drives-gchq PI's legal cases: https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/our-cases The ACLU's case challenging upsteam surveillance: https://www.aclu.org/cases/wikimedia-v-nsa-challenge-upstream-surveillance The White House review of the NSA post Snowden: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites

This week we're discussing the UK Home Office's practice of forcing migrants to wear GPS ankle tags or carry GPS fingerprint scanners. Find out more about the policy, its impact on people, how the trackers work and why we think its wrong for a company to profit from all of this. Links Send Capita an email at: pvcy.org/GPSaction Find out more on our website about the campaign: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/capital-surveillance Watch the full video testimonies - video 1: https://media.privacyinternational.org/w/cB1gjT7FA4L77NUA2PF7Jd video 2: https://media.privacyinternational.org/w/bMY219Rmd2tXSpmSH4HL9F

This week we’re joined by Lucy and Laura to discuss the use of technology in elections, and their time monitoring the Kenyan Presidential Election in 2022. Links Human rights abuses including unlawful killings by police, violence at Kenya's 2017 election: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/27/kenya-post-election-killings-abuse Claims of fraud from Kenya's last election: https://www.cartercenter.org/countries/kenya.html PI and the Carter Center's joint election report: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5053/our-final-report-kenyas-2022-election-collaboration-carter-center-election-expert Challenge to the 2022 election result and Supreme Court decision: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-62768439 More about the use of data in elections: https://privacyinternational.org/taxonomy/term/848 Our data and elections checklist: https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/3093/technology-data-and-elections-checklist-election-cycle

This week we're speaking to Claudia Duque an Human Rights Defender and journalist for over 25 years, reported on crimes occurred during armed conflict and Emi, a Colombian lawyer defending press freedom. Claudia has been subjected to death threats, and was given official protection by the Colombian Government, including an armoured car. However, that protection was used to surveil her, including through a GPS tracker installed in the car without her knowledge. Listen to find out more! Links The organisation who put us in touch with Claudia is called Media Defence, they are an international human rights organisation which provides legal defence to journalists, citizen journalists and independent media around the world who are under threat for their reporting. Find out more about them and their work: https://www.mediadefence.org/ You can also read more about Claudia, her work, and the cases she's taken forward on Media Defence's website: https://www.mediadefence.org/news/hope-and-resilience-cla

In January 2023, the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal handed down a landmark judgment. The Tribunal held that there were “very serious failings” at the highest levels of MI5 - the UK's domestic intelligence agency - to comply with privacy safeguards from as early as 2014, and that successive Home Secretaries did not to enquire into or resolve these long-standing rule-breaking despite obvious red flags. In this episode, we talk to Meg Goulding, a lawyer at the UK-based campaigning organisation, Liberty, who was a solicitor instructed on the case, and Nour Haidar, a lawyer and member of the legal team at PI to discuss what this ruling actually means for the ongoing fight against mass surveillance. The way our data was handled by MI5 amounts to a significant intrusion into potentially millions of people’s fundamental right to privacy. This case was a critical mechanism of holding MI5 accountable for failing to handle the data they hold in a lawful manner. Agencies tasked with protecting national security proce

This week we're having our own little christmas party, discussing things we've achieved throughout 2022.  Read more about the things we've achieved throughout the year, and donate to PI as much or as little as you can afford. Credits:   As ever, with a huge thank you to Sepia!  dj997 via freesound acclivity via freesound Marta Tsvettsikh via freesound CNN Sky News

This week we speak  to Gillian Tully, the UK’s former forensic regulator about the  importance and challenges that come with trying to ensure that forensic  evidence submitted in court is of a high quality. Links More about Gillian Tully: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/gillian-tully Original Phone Extraction podcast: https://privacyinternational.org/video/3786/podcast-extraction GOS tag complaint: Challenge to systemic quality failures of GPS tags submitted to Forensic Science Regulator https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/4940/challenge-systemic-quality-failures-gps-tags-submitted-forensic-science-regulator Why Forensics Matter: Immigration officers and the quality of evidence in the UK: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/4740/why-forensics-matter-immigration-officers-and-quality-evidence-uk Push This Button For Evidence: Digital Forensics: https://privacyinternational.org/explainer/3022/push-button-evidence-digital-forensics Police Linked to Hacking Campaign to Frame Indian Ac

This week we're talking to Cory Doctorow about his new book Chokepoint Capitalism - coauthored with Rebecca Giblin, his as yet unpublished next book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, and how corporate power is shaping our rights. Quick corrections!  - GDPR compensation is in theory possible through court action: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/data-protection-and-journalism/taking-your-case-to-court-and-claiming-compensation/ - GDPR Article 80(2) not Section 20 something as I stated!  Links - Cory's website: https://craphound.com/ - Chokepoint Capitalism coauthored with Rebecca Giblin: https://doctorow.medium.com/what-is-chokepoint-capitalism-b885c4cb2719 - Giphy and Meta: https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/4911/uk-tribunal-agrees-metas-acquisition-giphy-harms-competition - Chokepoint Capitalism: the audiobook: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/chokepoint-capitalism-an-audiobook-amazon-wont-sell - How to leave dying social media platforms (without

This week we're talking about Education Technology: what is it? Why are  schools using it? Is it safe? How can we make sure that children aren't  being asked to sacrifice their right to privacy in order to access  their right to an education? Links - Read more of our work on EdTech: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/edtech - Find out more about Google Classroom in Denmark: https://www.wired.com/story/denmark-google-schools-data/ - Taser drones: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/06/school-taser-drone-programme-paused-after-ethics-board-exodus - We're tracking the use of EdTech around the world, you can find out more here: https://privacyinternational.org/example/edtech

This week we speak to Sebastian Meineck, a journalist from Netzpolitik about PimEyes, a free(ish) face search engine similar to Clearview, but for public consumption.  Please note this podcast was recorded before Sebastian and Netzpolitik were able to talk to PimEyes CEO Gobronidze in person. You can read that interview here: https://netzpolitik.org/2022/pimeyes-ceo-the-user-is-the-stalker-not-the-search-engine/ Links Find more of Sebastian's work here: https://sebastianmeineck.wordpress.com/ More of Netzpolitik's work on PimEyes here: https://netzpolitik.org/tag/pimeyes/ Read more of PI's work on facial recognition: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/facial-recognition And our work on Clearview: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/get-out-our-face-clearview

In this episode, Alexandrine Pirlot de Corbion, our Director of  Strategy, speaks to Nour El Arnaout, from the Global Health Institute,  American University of Beirut, Lebanon and Yousef Khader, from the  Global Health Development, Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network  and the Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and  Technology, Jordan, about digital health in the Middle East and North Africa and in particular digital maternal health and family planning  initiatives they are working on, the impact of gender inequality, and  the risks involved. Nour El Arnaout is a division manager at the Global Health Insitute at the American University of Beirut, where she also co-ordinates the Institutes's  E-Sahha programme focussed on e-health and digital  health. She has more than 7 years experience in projects and programmes  management, operational management and research, and leads the  implementation of large scale field based projects in und

This week we talk to Ina Sander from Cardiff University about how to talk to people about  privacy, drawing on her research looking at how to teach 'critical data  literacy' in schools.    Links You can find a resource for teachers we've been working with Ina on here: https://privacyinternational.org/learning-resources/teaching-about-data-resource-educators   You can read more about critical data literacy here: https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/what-critical-big-data-literacy-and-how-can-it-be-implemented   You can find the database of resources for teaching about big data and algorithmic systems Ina mentions here: https://www.bigdataliteracy.net/database/   You can find PI's guides to help you and your loved ones protect yourselves online: https://privacyinternational.org/act

While being the world’s largest provider of aid, Europe also exports  surveillance around the world by training police, providing surveillance  techand building widescale databases. While the benefits for European arms and security companies is clear, how this helps those it’s supposed to is less obvious. We sat down with investigative journalist Giacomo to talk more about  the impact of this financial flow to security forces and surveillance. Links Giacomo’s report on Europe’s Shady Funds to Border Forces in the Sahel https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/3223/europes-shady-funds-border-forces-sahel Giacomo’s report on The European Chase for Saharan Smugglers https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/3347/european-chase-saharan-smugglers Privacy International’s disclosures on the EU’s surveillance aid https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/4291/surveillance-disclosures-show-urgent-need-reforms-eu-aid-programmes You can follow Giacomo at @giacomo_zando