Security and privacy
The extent to which African countries are conducting technology-based disease surveillance is not fully known. While well intentioned, Covid-19 surveillance and data-based tracking interventions have been effected in haste, and with limited precedent and oversight mechanisms.
The coronavirus pandemic isn’t a purely medical issue, it entangles all aspects of human lives, including our privacy, protection and dignity.
As governments around the world attempt to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases, authorities appear to be looking towards technology for support. Chatbots, online dashboards, and mobile caller tunes are some of the digital strategies put on display by officials to raise awareness around Covid-19.
7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media warns of Israel committing mass violations of digital rights, especially the right to privacy, under the pretext of managing the health crisis caused by the coronavirus.
The undersigned organisations express their concern over the announcement of the use of satellite monitoring and georeferencing systems to track individuals as part of the disease containment measures established in Ecuador to confront the COVID-19 epidemic.
In the face of a rising number of attacks on journalists in Bangladesh, Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment (VOICE), an APC member organisation, hosted a day-long media training workshop to discuss the challenges faced by journalists and explore solutions for this growing problem.
The exhibition, launched in January 2020, critically investigated the online world from a feminist point of view. APCNews spoke with its curators to gain more insight on the event and to understand the part that the Feminist Principles of the Internet played in this unique display.
In this statement delivered during the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, APC welcomed a gender perspective being integrated into the work of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and the adoption of intersectionality as a framework in the digital age.
APC’s priorities at this HRC session include gender and privacy online, freedom of religion or belief, and the criminalisation of human rights defenders, journalists and digital security and tech expertise, as well as highlighting violations of internet rights in countries like India and Myanmar.
Ola Bini is a computer expert and human rights defender recognised worldwide, who is facing a political-judicial process in Ecuador since April 2019. In regards to this, Ecuadorian and international civil society organisations have decided to attend, as observers, the preparatory hearing and trial evaluation of 5 March 2020.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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