Security and privacy
The Philippine government has launched an exposure notification application, StaySafe.ph, which aims to contain the pandemic in the country. While the effort is commendable, the importance of combating COVID-19 while protecting people’s individual freedoms cannot be emphasised enough.
Upon the confirmation of the first COVID-19 case in Kenya, the government enacted various legislation to deal with the pandemic. While the measures were well intended, the manner in which existing laws have been implemented has caused some concern among civil society organisations.
Gender-based violence against women and girls remains a global threat to the public health of women and girls during emergencies. As the COVID-19 pandemic deepens the economic and social stress, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures, gender-based violence against women and girls is increasing exponentially.
King Catoy, video lead at EngageMedia, breaks down the free/libre and open source (FLOSS) tools he used to record EngageMedia’s recently launched video podcast on digital rights in the Asia-Pacific region.
APC and other regional and global civil society organisations call on Brazilian legislators to reject the latest version of the bill and open a participatory discussion on how to respond to the challenges of disinformation while respecting Brazil’s international human rights commitments.
Kate Sim is a DPhil student at the Oxford Internet Institute researching the datafication and automation of sexual harassment reporting systems in US higher education. In this interview with Deep Dives, Kate talks about her research on sexual harassment, digital technologies and big data.
COVID-19 has led to a surge of efforts by both state and private actors to manage the pandemic itself, and the consequences of it, with the aid of technology. Yet privacy has immediately been cast as a required trade-off in the efforts to combat the disease.
South Korea succeeded in epidemic prevention because it conducted active inspections based on tracking the whereabouts of confirmed patients. However, it should not be forgotten that behind the scenes is an electronic monitoring system that allows our every move to be tracked at any time.
Al Munasq, a dangerous application launched by Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (COGAT) unit last year, violates Palestinians' privacy and can lead to other human rights violations.
Data protection in Africa can still be described to be in its nascent stage. Most African states do not have a data protection law. This paper by Tomiwa Ilori considers the status of data protection in Africa and the impact of public emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic on data protection in Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Mauritius.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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