Privacy International
Encyclopedia
Privacy International is a UK-based non-profit organisation formed in 1990, "as a watchdog on surveillance
and privacy
invasions by government
s and corporations." PI has organised campaigns and initiatives in more than fifty countries and is based in London
, UK.
of surveillance
, more than a hundred privacy experts and human rights
organizations from forty countries took steps to form an international organization for the protection of privacy.
Members of the new body, including computer
professionals, academics
, lawyer
s, journalist
s, jurist
s and human rights activists
, had a common interest in promoting an international understanding of the importance of privacy
and data protection. Meetings of the group, which took the name Privacy International (PI), were held throughout that year in North America
, Europe
, Asia
, and the South Pacific
, and members agreed to work toward the establishment of new forms of privacy advocacy at the international level. The initiative was convened and personally funded by British privacy activist Simon Davies
who has since then been director of the organization.
At the time, privacy advocacy within the non-government sector was fragmented and regionalised, while at the regulatory level there was little communication between privacy officials outside the EU. Awareness of privacy issues at the international level was generated primarily through academic publications and international news reports but privacy campaigning at an international level until that time had not been feasible.
While there had for some years existed an annual international meeting of privacy regulators, the formation of Privacy International was the first successful attempt to establish a global focus on this emerging area of human rights. PI evolved as an independent, non-government network with the primary role of advocacy and support, but largely failed in its first decade to become a major international player. Most of its early campaigns were focused on Southeast Asia
.
Privacy International's aims and mandate have remained largely unchanged since its inception. The organisation's Articles of Association state that its objectives are:
, the Open Society Justice Initiative, the European Parliament
, the European Commission
, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, the American Civil Liberties Union
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
, the Fund for Constitutional Government, the Stern Foundation, the Privacy Foundation, the German Marshall Fund
, and the University of New South Wales
. It also receives a small amount of finance via contributions.
, Europe
and Southeast Asia
, where it liaised with local human rights organisations to raise awareness about the development of national surveillance systems. In more recent times the organisation has shifted much of its focus to issues concerning the EU and the US and has adopted a more aggressive program of legal action.
Since the late 1990s the organization's campaigns, media activity and projects have focused on a wide spectrum of issues, including Internet privacy
, international government cooperation, passenger name record
transfers, data protection law, anti-terrorism developments, freedom of information
, Internet censorship
, identity systems, corporate governance
, the appointment of privacy regulators, cross-border data flows, data retention
, judicial process, government consultation procedures, information security
, national security
, cybercrime
and aspects of around a hundred technologies and technology applications ranging from video surveillance to DNA testing.
The PI network has also been used by law reform
and human rights
organisations in more than forty countries to campaign on local privacy issues. In Thailand
and the Philippines
, for example, Privacy International worked with local human rights bodies to develop national campaigns against the establishment of government identity card
systems. In Canada
, New Zealand
, the United States
, Hungary
, Australia
, and the United Kingdom
it has promoted privacy issues through national media
and through public campaigns. In Central
and Eastern Europe
, PI has been active in promoting government accountability through Freedom of information legislation
.
PI monitors the activities of international organisations, including the European Union
, the Council of Europe
, and United Nations
agencies. It has conducted numerous studies and reports, and provides commentary and analysis of contemporary policy and technology issues.
The organisation is relatively small, comprising three full-time staff, part-time research support and a number of volunteers and interns. However this small team is supported in its project work by a collaborative network of around a hundred organisations in the fields of civil liberties, academia, technology assessment and human rights. These include, or have included, the American Civil Liberties Union
, the Australian Privacy Foundation
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(US), Statewatch
(UK), the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(US), the European Digital Rights Initiative, Consumers International
, the Foundation for Information Policy Research (UK), Liberty (UK), the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
, the Moscow Human Rights Network, Amnesty International
, Privacy Ukraine, Quintessenz
(Austria), Human Rights Watch
, Bits of Freedom (Netherlands), freedominfo.org, Index on Censorship
, the Association for Progressive Communications
, the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, Charter 88 (UK), the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates and the Thai Civil Liberties Union.
published details of a private arrangement between Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
(SWIFT) and the United States Government that involved the mass covert disclosure to the US of customer financial data. SWIFT is a cooperative involving around 8,000 financial institutions. It handles the secure messaging process at the heart of the majority of financial transfers worldwide, amounting to around $2,000 trillion per year.
The following week PI filed simultaneous complaints with Data Protection and Privacy regulators in 38 countries concerning the secret disclosures of records. The complaints alleged that the transfers violated EU law.
The PI complaints sparked a series of regulatory and legal actions that have ultimately forced SWIFT to re-evaluate its practices. The organisation has now agreed to move its data operations to Switzerland where US authorities have no jurisdiction.
to be given to the most influential and persistent privacy invaders, as well as to people and organisations who have excelled in defending privacy. To date, 75 award ceremonies have been held as annual events in seventeen countries including Japan, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Australia. France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, the United States, Spain, Finland and the United Kingdom.
service, Privacy International sent a formal complaint about the service to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The complaint cited more than 200 reports from members of the public who were identifiable on images hosted by the service. Privacy International director Simon Davies said that the organisation had filed the complaint due to the "clear embarrassment and damage" Street View had caused to many Britons. He said that Street View fell short of the assurances given to the ICO that had enabled its UK launch and asked for the system to be "switched off" while an investigation was completed.
The ICO had given permission for the launch of the service in July 2008 based partly on Google's assurances that it would blur faces and vehicle licence plates to protect privacy. In its complaint, PI said that Google's claim that its face blurring system would result in a few misses was a "gross underestimation" and meant that the data used by Street View would fall under the UK's Data Protection Act 1998, which requires that subjects give permission for the use of information concerning them. However, the ICO rejected PI's complaint, noting that removing the service would be "disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment" and that ""Google Street View does not contravene the Data Protection Act and, in any case, it is not in the public interest to turn the digital clock back"
The most notable political controversy surrounding the organisation was sparked in 2005 when former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and former Home Secretary Charles Clarke
publicly accused PI's Director and founder Simon Davies
of covertly using his academic affiliation with the London School of Economics
(LSE) to undermine the government's plans for a national identity card. The government sought to deflect attention from problems with its ID cards programme by attempting to personally denigrate the LSE report and Simon Davies personally. The LSE Director Sir Howard Davies strongly rebutted this unprecedented political attack on UK academic freedom. The government's intent was apparently to raise doubts about the accuracy of the report in several areas and in particular, the manner in which projected cost estimates had been calculated (based on figures developed by the independent IT analysis company, Kable), and what it called "selective and misleading use of evidence regarding biometrics and a failure to include any natural scientists to inform the report despite the significant claims made about biometrics and the accuracy of biometric technologies". Rather than address the issues raised by the report, several government politicians and their biometric experts instead chose to criticise the accuracy of the report, questioning whether the involvement of leading PI campaigners and well known opponents of identity cards meant that it could be considered unbiased. The episode is notable for the nature of its overtly political attack on an academic report from a leading UK university and its personalisation of criticisms of Simon Davies. Even MPs who supported identity cards recognised that the government had entered new territory by undermining independent academic work on issues of legitimate contemporary interest.
The government's claims of bias were strenuously denied by Simon Davies and resulted in heated debate between Government and Opposition parties both in the House of Commons
and the House of Lords
. The coverage led Davies to draw comparisons of the argument with former government scientific advisor David Kelly who took his life following an allegedly similar campaign.
In his 2006 autobiography, another former Home Secretary David Blunkett
wrote "I am really sorry that the London School of Economics have allowed him (Davies) to even hint that he has any connection with them". Davies has lectured at the LSE since 1997 and continues to do so both as Visiting Fellow and as co-director of the LSE's Policy Engagement Network.
In June 2007 PI released an assessment of the privacy practices of selected online services. This generated controversy within the blogosphere
for what some observers perceived as undue criticism of Google
, which was rated as more privacy-infringing than Facebook
or Microsoft
. Particular criticism was levelled at Privacy International's choice to rate Microsoft's Live Search brand and Microsoft as a corporation separately, a decision that resulted in a more flattering assessment of Microsoft than might otherwise have been the case. PI defended itself on the grounds that it had also split Google into two separate entities.
PI were drawn into the Phorm
affair in February 2008, after Kent Ertugrul claimed PI endorsement for Phorm's Webwise product;
Simon Davies drew fierce criticism for his apparent enthusiasm for aspects of Phorm's model of operation, stating that "[PI] does not endorse Phorm, though we do applaud a number of developments in its process". At the time of writing, PI have not published any analysis or comment concerning Phorm products.
In March 2009, following PI's criticism of Google's Street View service, Davies sent an open letter to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, accusing the company of briefing journalists against him, by claiming Davies was biased in favor of Microsoft. Google has pointed to connections between Microsoft and data protection consultancy 80/20 Thinking, run by Davies, and has said that Davies' connections to Microsoft should be made clear in public, as the credibility of his criticisms is undermined by the fact that he acts as a consultant to companies who are direct rivals and critics of Google; a fact Davies rarely discloses in press releases or comments.
Since 1997 Privacy International in cooperation with the Electronic Privacy Information Center
has conducted annual surveys in order to assess how much privacy nations' populations have from both corporative and government surveillance. The 2006 survey examined all EU countries and 11 other selected countries.
, the American Civil Liberties Union
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
, the Fund for Constitutional Government, the Stern Foundation, the Privacy Foundation, the German Marshall Fund
, and the University of New South Wales
. The organisation is also minimally financed through donations from members of the public.
By 2007 the organization had an international advisory board with members from over 30 countries, and a board of trustee
s who oversee a small team of research and policy staff. It is an independent non-profit organization chartered in the UK. Its U.S. organisation is administered through the Fund for Constitutional Government in Washington DC.
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
and privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
invasions by government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s and corporations." PI has organised campaigns and initiatives in more than fifty countries and is based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK.
Formation, background and objectives
During 1990, in response to increasing awareness about the globalisationGlobalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
of surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
, more than a hundred privacy experts and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organizations from forty countries took steps to form an international organization for the protection of privacy.
Members of the new body, including computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
professionals, academics
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
s, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s, jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
s and human rights activists
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
, had a common interest in promoting an international understanding of the importance of privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
and data protection. Meetings of the group, which took the name Privacy International (PI), were held throughout that year in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, and the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, and members agreed to work toward the establishment of new forms of privacy advocacy at the international level. The initiative was convened and personally funded by British privacy activist Simon Davies
Simon Davies (privacy advocate)
Simon Davies is a privacy advocate and academic based in London UK. He was one of the first campaigners in the field of international privacy advocacy, founding the watchdog organization Privacy International in 1990 and subsequently working in emerging areas of privacy such as electronic visual...
who has since then been director of the organization.
At the time, privacy advocacy within the non-government sector was fragmented and regionalised, while at the regulatory level there was little communication between privacy officials outside the EU. Awareness of privacy issues at the international level was generated primarily through academic publications and international news reports but privacy campaigning at an international level until that time had not been feasible.
While there had for some years existed an annual international meeting of privacy regulators, the formation of Privacy International was the first successful attempt to establish a global focus on this emerging area of human rights. PI evolved as an independent, non-government network with the primary role of advocacy and support, but largely failed in its first decade to become a major international player. Most of its early campaigns were focused on Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
.
Privacy International's aims and mandate have remained largely unchanged since its inception. The organisation's Articles of Association state that its objectives are:
- To raise awareness of and to provide education about threats to personal privacy;
- To work at a national and international level toward the provision of strong and effective privacy law;
- To monitor the nature, effectiveness and extent of measures to protect privacy and personal data;
- To conduct research into threats to personal privacy;
- To monitor and report on surveillance activities of security forces and intelligence agencies;
- To scrutinise the nature, extent and implications of trans-border flows of information;
- To engage in advocacy at a national and international level, such as making representations to bodies such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the OECD;
- To seek ways through which information technology can be used in the protection of privacy.
Funding
Privacy International has been funded and supported by a variety of foundations, academic establishments, and non-government organisations, including the Open Society InstituteOpen Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
, the Open Society Justice Initiative, the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...
, the Fund for Constitutional Government, the Stern Foundation, the Privacy Foundation, the German Marshall Fund
German Marshall Fund
The German Marshall Fund of the United States is a nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe....
, and the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
. It also receives a small amount of finance via contributions.
Campaigns, networking and research
Throughout the 1990s Privacy International was active in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, where it liaised with local human rights organisations to raise awareness about the development of national surveillance systems. In more recent times the organisation has shifted much of its focus to issues concerning the EU and the US and has adopted a more aggressive program of legal action.
Since the late 1990s the organization's campaigns, media activity and projects have focused on a wide spectrum of issues, including Internet privacy
Internet privacy
Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, repurposing, providing to third-parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Privacy can entail both Personally Identifying Information or non-PII information such as a...
, international government cooperation, passenger name record
Passenger Name Record
In the travel industry, a passenger name record is a record in the database of a computer reservation system that contains the itinerary for a passenger, or a group of passengers traveling together...
transfers, data protection law, anti-terrorism developments, freedom of information
Freedom of information
Freedom of information refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology . Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e...
, Internet censorship
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
, identity systems, corporate governance
Corporate governance
Corporate governance is a number of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions which have impact on the way a company is controlled...
, the appointment of privacy regulators, cross-border data flows, data retention
Data retention
Data retention defines the policies of persistent data and records management for meeting legal and business data archival requirements. A data retention policy weighs legal and privacy concerns against economics and need to know concerns to determine both the retention time, archival rules, data...
, judicial process, government consultation procedures, information security
Information security
Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction....
, national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
, cybercrime
CyberCrime
CyberCrime was an innovative, weekly America television program on TechTV that focused on the dangers facing computer users. Filmed in San Francisco, California, the show was hosted by Alex Wellen and Jennifer London...
and aspects of around a hundred technologies and technology applications ranging from video surveillance to DNA testing.
The PI network has also been used by law reform
Law reform
Law reform or Legal reform is the process of examining existing laws, and advocating and implementing changes in a legal system, usually with the aim of enhancing justice or efficiency....
and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organisations in more than forty countries to campaign on local privacy issues. In Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, for example, Privacy International worked with local human rights bodies to develop national campaigns against the establishment of government identity card
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
systems. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
it has promoted privacy issues through national media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and through public campaigns. In Central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, PI has been active in promoting government accountability through Freedom of information legislation
Freedom of information legislation
Freedom of information legislation comprises laws that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions...
.
PI monitors the activities of international organisations, including the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, and United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
agencies. It has conducted numerous studies and reports, and provides commentary and analysis of contemporary policy and technology issues.
The organisation is relatively small, comprising three full-time staff, part-time research support and a number of volunteers and interns. However this small team is supported in its project work by a collaborative network of around a hundred organisations in the fields of civil liberties, academia, technology assessment and human rights. These include, or have included, the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, the Australian Privacy Foundation
Australian Privacy Foundation
The Australian Privacy Foundation is an NGO formed for the purpose of protecting the privacy rights of Australians. Its aim is to focus public attention on emerging issues which pose a threat to the freedom and privacy of Australians, and also takes a leading role on issues of defending rights of...
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...
(US), Statewatch
Statewatch
Statewatch is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that monitors the state and civil liberties in the European Union. It is composed of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and community activists. Its European network of contributors is drawn from 14 countries...
(UK), the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
(US), the European Digital Rights Initiative, Consumers International
Consumers International
Consumers International is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers...
, the Foundation for Information Policy Research (UK), Liberty (UK), the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
Since its inception in 1994, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is a leading non-governmental organization in the field of human rights and harm reduction advocacy in Hungary...
, the Moscow Human Rights Network, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Privacy Ukraine, Quintessenz
Quintessenz
Quintessenz is a civil liberties advocacy organization based in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria.Founded in 1994, Quintessenz works on Internet and on-line liberty issues in co-operation with other civil liberties advocates around the world.Quintessenz is a co-organizer of the Big Brother...
(Austria), Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Bits of Freedom (Netherlands), freedominfo.org, Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...
, the Association for Progressive Communications
Association for Progressive Communications
The Association for Progressive Communications is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and...
, the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, Charter 88 (UK), the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates and the Thai Civil Liberties Union.
Research projects
PI has published around thirty major research reports. These include studies on Internet censorship, communications data retention, counter-terrorism policies in the EU and the US, SWIFT auditing processes, travel surveillance, secrecy provisions and protection of sources, Internet privacy, policy laundering, free-expression and privacy, the US VISIT program, and identity cards and counter-terrorism.The SWIFT affair
In June 2006, the New York Times and the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
published details of a private arrangement between Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication operates a worldwide financial messaging network which exchanges messages between banks and other financial institutions...
(SWIFT) and the United States Government that involved the mass covert disclosure to the US of customer financial data. SWIFT is a cooperative involving around 8,000 financial institutions. It handles the secure messaging process at the heart of the majority of financial transfers worldwide, amounting to around $2,000 trillion per year.
The following week PI filed simultaneous complaints with Data Protection and Privacy regulators in 38 countries concerning the secret disclosures of records. The complaints alleged that the transfers violated EU law.
The PI complaints sparked a series of regulatory and legal actions that have ultimately forced SWIFT to re-evaluate its practices. The organisation has now agreed to move its data operations to Switzerland where US authorities have no jurisdiction.
The Big Brother Awards
In 1998 Privacy International took the decision to start an international gong called the Big Brother AwardsBig Brother Awards
The Big Brother Awards recognize "the government and private sector organizations ... which have done the most to threaten personal privacy".They are named after the George Orwell character Big Brother from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.-Countries:...
to be given to the most influential and persistent privacy invaders, as well as to people and organisations who have excelled in defending privacy. To date, 75 award ceremonies have been held as annual events in seventeen countries including Japan, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Australia. France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, the United States, Spain, Finland and the United Kingdom.
The Stupid Security competition
In January 2003, PI launched an international competition to discover the world's "most pointless, intrusive and self-serving security initiatives". The "Stupid Security" award highlighted measures which are pointless and illusory, and which cause unnecessary distress, annoyance and unintended danger to the public. The competition resulted in over five thousand nominations from around the world. The winners were announced at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in New York on April 3 that year.Google Street View
In March 2009, following the addition of 25 UK cities to Google's Street ViewGoogle Street View
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world...
service, Privacy International sent a formal complaint about the service to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The complaint cited more than 200 reports from members of the public who were identifiable on images hosted by the service. Privacy International director Simon Davies said that the organisation had filed the complaint due to the "clear embarrassment and damage" Street View had caused to many Britons. He said that Street View fell short of the assurances given to the ICO that had enabled its UK launch and asked for the system to be "switched off" while an investigation was completed.
The ICO had given permission for the launch of the service in July 2008 based partly on Google's assurances that it would blur faces and vehicle licence plates to protect privacy. In its complaint, PI said that Google's claim that its face blurring system would result in a few misses was a "gross underestimation" and meant that the data used by Street View would fall under the UK's Data Protection Act 1998, which requires that subjects give permission for the use of information concerning them. However, the ICO rejected PI's complaint, noting that removing the service would be "disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment" and that ""Google Street View does not contravene the Data Protection Act and, in any case, it is not in the public interest to turn the digital clock back"
PI and public controversy
Privacy International's unconventional and sometimes aggressive approach to privacy advocacy has at times resulted in controversy and a questioning of its motives.The most notable political controversy surrounding the organisation was sparked in 2005 when former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and former Home Secretary Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
publicly accused PI's Director and founder Simon Davies
Simon Davies (privacy advocate)
Simon Davies is a privacy advocate and academic based in London UK. He was one of the first campaigners in the field of international privacy advocacy, founding the watchdog organization Privacy International in 1990 and subsequently working in emerging areas of privacy such as electronic visual...
of covertly using his academic affiliation with the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE) to undermine the government's plans for a national identity card. The government sought to deflect attention from problems with its ID cards programme by attempting to personally denigrate the LSE report and Simon Davies personally. The LSE Director Sir Howard Davies strongly rebutted this unprecedented political attack on UK academic freedom. The government's intent was apparently to raise doubts about the accuracy of the report in several areas and in particular, the manner in which projected cost estimates had been calculated (based on figures developed by the independent IT analysis company, Kable), and what it called "selective and misleading use of evidence regarding biometrics and a failure to include any natural scientists to inform the report despite the significant claims made about biometrics and the accuracy of biometric technologies". Rather than address the issues raised by the report, several government politicians and their biometric experts instead chose to criticise the accuracy of the report, questioning whether the involvement of leading PI campaigners and well known opponents of identity cards meant that it could be considered unbiased. The episode is notable for the nature of its overtly political attack on an academic report from a leading UK university and its personalisation of criticisms of Simon Davies. Even MPs who supported identity cards recognised that the government had entered new territory by undermining independent academic work on issues of legitimate contemporary interest.
The government's claims of bias were strenuously denied by Simon Davies and resulted in heated debate between Government and Opposition parties both in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
and the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. The coverage led Davies to draw comparisons of the argument with former government scientific advisor David Kelly who took his life following an allegedly similar campaign.
In his 2006 autobiography, another former Home Secretary David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
wrote "I am really sorry that the London School of Economics have allowed him (Davies) to even hint that he has any connection with them". Davies has lectured at the LSE since 1997 and continues to do so both as Visiting Fellow and as co-director of the LSE's Policy Engagement Network.
In June 2007 PI released an assessment of the privacy practices of selected online services. This generated controversy within the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
for what some observers perceived as undue criticism of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, which was rated as more privacy-infringing than Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
or Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. Particular criticism was levelled at Privacy International's choice to rate Microsoft's Live Search brand and Microsoft as a corporation separately, a decision that resulted in a more flattering assessment of Microsoft than might otherwise have been the case. PI defended itself on the grounds that it had also split Google into two separate entities.
PI were drawn into the Phorm
Phorm
Phorm, formerly known as 121Media, is a Delaware, United States-based digital technology company known for its advertising software. Founded in 2002, the company originally distributed programs that were considered spyware, from which they made millions of dollars in revenue...
affair in February 2008, after Kent Ertugrul claimed PI endorsement for Phorm's Webwise product;
Kent Ertugrul: "Just to be sure, bring in external validators, bring in Ernst and Young, bring in Privacy International"
Charles Arthur: "It wasn't Privacy International was it though? It was Simon Davies and Gus Hosein who were acting individually"
Kent: "Your point is what?"
Simon Davies drew fierce criticism for his apparent enthusiasm for aspects of Phorm's model of operation, stating that "[PI] does not endorse Phorm, though we do applaud a number of developments in its process". At the time of writing, PI have not published any analysis or comment concerning Phorm products.
In March 2009, following PI's criticism of Google's Street View service, Davies sent an open letter to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, accusing the company of briefing journalists against him, by claiming Davies was biased in favor of Microsoft. Google has pointed to connections between Microsoft and data protection consultancy 80/20 Thinking, run by Davies, and has said that Davies' connections to Microsoft should be made clear in public, as the credibility of his criticisms is undermined by the fact that he acts as a consultant to companies who are direct rivals and critics of Google; a fact Davies rarely discloses in press releases or comments.
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Since 1997 Privacy International in cooperation with the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...
has conducted annual surveys in order to assess how much privacy nations' populations have from both corporative and government surveillance. The 2006 survey examined all EU countries and 11 other selected countries.
Structure and finances
PI has received funding and support from a range of foundations, academic establishments and non-government organisations. These include the Soros FoundationSoros Foundation
A Soros Foundation is one of a network of national foundations, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, which fund volunteer socio-political activity, created by George Soros, international financier and self-proclaimed philanthropist, and coordinated since early 1994 by a management team called the...
, the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...
, the Fund for Constitutional Government, the Stern Foundation, the Privacy Foundation, the German Marshall Fund
German Marshall Fund
The German Marshall Fund of the United States is a nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe....
, and the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
. The organisation is also minimally financed through donations from members of the public.
By 2007 the organization had an international advisory board with members from over 30 countries, and a board of trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s who oversee a small team of research and policy staff. It is an independent non-profit organization chartered in the UK. Its U.S. organisation is administered through the Fund for Constitutional Government in Washington DC.