Security and privacy
During 2011, in the period dubbed the “Arab Spring”, the internet was a space for mobilisation. Since then, it has also become a space for oppression of activism and dissent. In countries where demonstrations calling for democracy erupted, authoritarian regimes resurfaced in different forms and shapes with intensifying violations of the human rights of citizens. While one cannot ignore the spectrum of violations across this region, in the past five years Arab governments have been general...
UPDATE: 18 April 2016: AEPROVI has issued a statement with their position in relation to this case. On 28 March 2014, users in Ecuador reported accessibility issues to Google and YouTube websites. The reason for the outage was not known at the time. Two years later, on 14 April 2016, a leaked document surfaced that explains those websites were systematically blocked. According to a leaked inte...
Submission in advance of the consideration of the periodic report of South Africa, Human Rights Committee, 116th Session, 7-31 March 2016 Privacy International, Right2Know, and the Association for Progressive Communications (hereinafter “the organisations”) note the written replies by the government of South Africa to the list of issues on South Africa’s laws, policies and practices relat...
Suggestions for right to privacy-related questions to be included in the list of issues on South Africa, Human Rights Committee, 114th session, June-July 2015 Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for the right of every person to be protected against arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence as well as against u...
When a group of us “organizational security practitioners”1 gathered in Prague this February, we were cautiously optimistic about what we could achieve. Many security experts and practitioners have been gaining invaluable experience while working to strengthen human right defenders and civil society organisations’ awareness, ability and confidence in thwarting security threats whi...
We encourage you to support the safety and security of users, companies, and governments by strengthening the integrity of communications and systems. In doing so, governments should reject laws, policies, or other mandates or practices, including secret agreements with companies, that limit access to or undermine encryption and other secure communications tools and technologies.
Dear Chief Executive John Chen and Chief Operating Officer Marty Beard We applaud your decision to stand up for the right to privacy of users in Pakistan by pledging to leave the market because of government demands for direct access to your servers. As international organizations that advocate for privacy and freedom of expression online, we urge you to continue to respect the privacy of users...
"The rich, diverse, free web that I loved – and spent years in an Iranian jail for – is dying. Why is nobody stopping it?” Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan wrote shortly after he was released from Evin prison in northern Tehran. Credited with introducing the blogging culture to Iran, Derakhshan spent six years isolated from the web he had contributed to building. When ...
Source: Tactical Tech on Flickr Cyber security is essential for the exercise of both online and offline rights, as it is key to privacy and the protection of personal data. At APC we understand the need for a cyber crime and cyber security bill to make South Africa a safer place online. However, we suggest, along with many experts from different backgrounds, that the Bill be rejected in its cur...
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