This week we talk about good things (or good-ish things) that you might have missed from 2023!

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Companies getting disciplined

Governments abandoning plans, or at least held to account

Legal protections emerging

Innovations

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.

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This week we speak to 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

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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.

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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

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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/default/files/docs/2013-12-12_rg_final_report.pdf⁠

Hear from Ed Snowden directly: ⁠https://privacyinternational.org/video/4518/fight-back-edward-snowden

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.

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Find out more on our website: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/capital-surveillance

Watch the full video testimonies

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.

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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!

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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:

Claudia's case against the former Administrative Department of Security: https://latamjournalismreview.org/articles/after-more-than-20-years-court-confirms-responsibility-of-the-colombian-state-in-violating-human-rights-of-journalist-claudia-julieta-duque/

If you're a climate activist fearing surveillance, these tips might be handy: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5000/how-avoid-social-media-monitoring-guide-climate-activists

For more detail on the surveillance experiences faced by human rights defenders, read: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/being-target

To read more about GPS technology, visit: https://privacyinternational.org/explainer/4796/electronic-monitoring-using-gps-tags-tech-primer