This week we're speaking to Eduardo from Transparencia Electoral about modern elections all over the world that they've observed, and Vladimir from R3D about the 2024 elections in Mexico. We find out more about the technologies that are at use in elections all over the world.

Links

⁠PI's technology, data and elections checklist⁠: https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/5158/technology-data-and-elections-updated-checklist-election-cycle

⁠Transparencia Electoral's report⁠: https://transparenciaelectoral.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Indice-de-Proteccion-de-Datos-Personales-en-Elecciones-de-America-Latina-3.pdf

⁠Transparencia's index on data protection in LatAm elections: https://transparenciaelectoral.org/privacidad-de-datos-en-procesos-electorales/

⁠R3D's report: Censura electoral⁠: https://r3d.mx/wp-content/uploads/Informe-Censura-Electoral-1.pdf

Episode links

Obama's 2012 targeted social media campaign: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-data-machine-facebook-election

Our work on Cambridge Analytica: https://privacyinternational.org/taxonomy/term/605

Deepfake use in elections: https://www.turing.ac.uk/news/no-evidence-ai-disinformation-or-deepfakes-impacted-uk-french-or-european-elections-results

Our report with the Carter Center on the Kenyan Presidential elections: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5053/our-final-report-kenyas-2022-election-collaboration-carter-center-election-expert

Listen to our episode about our work in Kenya (Election Observation: Data, Elections and a trip to Kenya) on our website and where ever you get your podcasts https://privacyinternational.org/video/5062/election-observation-data-elections-and-trip-kenya

DemoTech by Transparencia Electoral: https://transparenciaelectoral.org/demotech/

Transparencia on the Venezuelan elections: https://transparenciaelectoral.org/en/transparencia/transparencia-electoral-warns-venezuelan-elections-did-not-meet-the-most-basic-democratic-standards/

More information on Chinese tech used in Venezuela: https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/china-shows-venezuela-how-to-control-monitor-population/

Candidate assassinations in Mexico: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexican-candidate-assassinations-hit-grim-record-ahead-sundays-election-2024-06-01/

Ejército Espía: https://ejercitoespia.r3d.mx/

This week we take a deep dive into the issues around the rights and privacy of the global disability community in the digital age.

We're joined by Rosemary Kayess - Vice Chair of the UN Committee on the Convention of the Rights for Persons with Disabilities, and the Disability Discrimination commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Marc Workman - CEO of the World Blind Union (WBU), and Heba Hagrass - UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Time codes you might want to avoid:

00:42:52

Links

PI's work so far on this:

Submission to the UN CRPD Committee on their inquiry into the UK social protection and rights of persons with disabilities: ⁠https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/5321/un-committee-rights-persons-disabilities-calls-uk-act-ai-human-rights-risks⁠

OHCHR Submission and HRC oral statement on the rights of persons with disabilities and digitised social protection schemes: ⁠https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/5107/submission-ohchr-rights-persons-disabilities⁠

Long read on the rights of persons with disabilities and digitised social protection schemes: ⁠https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5170/protecting-persons-disabilities-digitised-world⁠

Robodebt

This week we're talking to Peter Bloom from Rhizomatica and Lũa Cruz from IDEC about internet connectivity, what drives social media companies to expand into internet provision, and what an earth is going on with Starlink in the amazon rainforest.

Links:

This week we're talking about facial recognition in the UK. Our research shows that members of parliament (MPs) don't know as much as they should about facial recognition use in the UK. So, what is going on? And what do MPs need to be aware of?

Links:

This week we're talking to Matthew Hodgson, one of the founders of Matrix - a network for secure, decentralised communication, and CEO/CTO of Element - a communications platform built using Matrix, about the regulatory environment matrix lives in, the difficulty of and the passion for interoperable communications at matrix, and the complications of building an encrypted communications platform both technically and in this day and age.

Links for description:

This week we're talking about a backdoor inserted into a popular Linux file compression tool, which had the potential to massively undermine the security of vast swathes of the internet. What happened? How did it happen? And how was it thwarted?

Links

Welcome to the last of our short series on encryption. This week we're just talking amongst ourselves, luckily Gus is an expert on encryption - having been working in and around the encryption debate since the '90s.

Links

Read more about PI's work on encryption here: ⁠⁠privacyinternational.org/learn/encryption⁠⁠

Matt Blaze and crypto.com: ⁠theverge.com/2018/7/6/17540818/crypto-com-domain-matt-blaze-monaco-mco-cryptology-sale⁠; you can now find Matt at ⁠mattblaze.org⁠

More about ITAR and the export of cryptography: ⁠en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States⁠

More about France's ban on encryption ending in this 1999 article from the Register: ⁠theregister.com/1999/01/15/france_to_end_severe_encryption/⁠

More about the Data Encryption Standard: ⁠en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard⁠

Find out more about the Clipper Chip: ⁠gizmodo.com/life-and-death-of-clipper-chip-encryption-backdoors-att-1850177832⁠

Or take a look at this NY Times article from 1994 (paywalled): ⁠nytimes.com/1994/06/12/magazine/battle-of-the-clipper-chip.html⁠

Matt Blaze's flaw in the Clipper Chip: ⁠wired.com/1994/09/clipping-clipper-matt-blaze/⁠

NSA Data Center: ⁠wired.com/2012/03/ff-nsadatacenter/⁠

NSA holding data: ⁠nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/nsa-foils-much-internet-encryption.html⁠

An old website that helped you sign up to be an Arms Trafficker: ⁠http://online.offshore.com.ai/arms-trafficker/⁠

Here's some of the RSA illegal tattoos: ⁠http://www.geekytattoos.com/illegal-tattoos-rsa-tattoos/⁠

Phil Zimmerman's release of PGP: ⁠mit.edu/~prz/EN/essays/BookPreface.html⁠

A documentary on this topic: ⁠reason.com/video/2020/10/21/cryptowars-gilmore-zimmermann-cryptography/⁠

The Reply All episode on Minitel: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/8whoda

This week we speak to Ioannis, a senior lawyer at PI, about his and his colleague's work on the landmark case protecting encryption 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:

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:

Learn more about PI's work on encryption:

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/legal-action/uk-migrant-gps-tracking-challenges

The five companies at the heart of the UK's GPS tagging system: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5063/who-profits-uks-247-tracking-migrants

We tested GPS ankle tags, read how our experiment went: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5064/life-under-247-gps-surveillance-gps-ankle-tag-experiment

Listen to our last podcast discussing GPS ankle tags: https://privacyinternational.org/video/5074/gps-tracking-migrants-uk-who-profits