Privacy
Civil society organizations and independent media are the targets of a variety of sophisticated attacks to compromise their websites and users – including the use of fake websites and social media profiles, a new report published by Access analyzes.…
1 August 2013
Recent revelations of sweeping government surveillance demonstrate the urgent need to update outdated privacy laws to reflect modern surveillance technologies in a way that is consistent with international human rights. To move toward that goal, Access is excited to announce the release of the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance.…
31 July 2013
The Amash-Conyers amendment, the U.S. Congress’ first attempt to limit the NSA surveillance, may have been unsuccessful. But its narrow loss demonstrates the growing force behind the call to reform these programs. To know where we go from here, its important to look at the potential impact of this amendment.…
26 July 2013
In less than 24 hours the U.S. Congress will vote on an amendment that could help put an end to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telecommunications metadata, offering the first legislative opportunity to begin to rein in U.S. government’s massive spying program.…
23 July 2013
Representatives from the NSA, FBI, and DOJ faced serious scrutiny before the US House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in a hearing on the ‘Administration’s use of FISA Authorities.’ The defining narrative of the hearing came from the Members themselves, who indignantly contended that Congress had been largely kept in the dark about the nature and scope of the surveillance programs.…
19 July 2013
Access joined a broad coalition in sending a letter to US government officials calling on the government to a) ensure internet, telephone, and web-based service providers be allowed to regularly report specific data regarding intelligence information requests, and to b) establish its own transparency report with specific data on number of requests, statutes, authorities, and affected individuals.…
18 July 2013
Some of the world’s leading sustainable investment firms have joined the growing chorus of voices speaking out against private sector compliance in the U.S. government’s sweeping violations of human rights through its widely publicized NSA surveillance programs.…
11 July 2013
James Comey, nominee for director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, failed to take a stand against the U.S. government’s widely publicized recent intrusions into personal privacy at his confirmation hearing. However, many of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled their support for important reform.
…11 July 2013
Access recently released a paper by Peter Bourgelais, an Access Tech Fellow, highlighting the growing electronic surveillance in post-Soviet Central Asia and the difficulties of regulating its manufacture and distribution. In Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, Russian-made technologies and companies dominate the market, and techniques that have limited regulatory efficacy elsewhere — such as export controls and public campaigning — are much less effective.
…29 June 2013
Myanmar has chosen the two winners of its new telecoms licenses, Telenor Mobile Communications of Norway and Ooredoo of Qatar. After winning the highly competitive process, they will have their work cut out for them, both operationally and in with regards to human rights.…
27 June 2013
After almost four years of discussion, Ecuador’s National Assembly passed a new Communications Law, providing a legal framework for the fundamental right to communications considered in the Constitution of 2008. While this new legislation represents a great advance for internet access, along with a more equitable distribution of public spectrum, it also contains some provisions that represent a threat to freedom of expression.…
27 June 2013
The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), a group of 21 governments committed to collaborating to advance internet freedom, convened in Tunis, Tunisia for their third annual meeting of governments, businesses, and civil society. While the conference had several programmatic tracks, recent revelations of sweeping state surveillance took center stage, including civil society’s statement at the closing plenary (below) which pointed to a series of principles that should underlie communications surveillance policies and practices. …
25 June 2013
To help telcos address these concerns, Access has developed guidance for telcos and other information and communication technology (ICT) firms in our new paper, Forgotten Pillar: The Telco Remedy Plan. The paper will be officially released at a special event open to the public in Washington, DC, on Monday June 24th.…
24 June 2013
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is the government oversight body principally charged with protecting privacy and civil liberties in the United States. However, in the eight years since it was established, the PCLOB has met only infrequently. But with the recent revelations of unconstitutional massive data collection by the NSA, it seems the PCLOB’s long run of applied irrelevance may have finally come to an end – and not a moment too soon.
…21 June 2013
As secrets about the NSA’s surveillance programs continue to command the world’s attention, some communications companies involved are advocating that the US government allow them to reveal more about their participation in the programs in order to maintain their reputations. …
20 June 2013
Representatives of top U.S. intelligence agencies testified before the House Intelligence Committee in a public oversight hearing. While the hearing largely served to allow officials to legitimate the recently-revealed massive US surveillance programs, a few representatives pushed back, granting the public important new information on these programs.
…19 June 2013
Access has partnered with ARTICLE 19, PEN International, and English PEN on a joint submission on Vietnam to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which focuses on the lack of improvement of human rights, specifically freedom of expression, in Vietnam and highlights the Vietnamese government’s troubling response to the recent increase in cyber attacks against civil society.
…19 June 2013
Today Access, in coordination with a broad-based group of civil society organizations and individuals, sent a letter to the US Congress representing the international response to the massive NSA surveillance program. Amidst the often US-centric response to this scandal, the letter presents an important reminder that these programs not only affect, but specifically target, non-US citizens in a gross breach of the United States’ responsibilities under international human rights law. …
18 June 2013
Details of the recently revealed large-scale, secret United States surveillance programs, the collection of Verizon users’ metadata and PRISM, are still emerging. However, from the information available, it is clear that while the programs rest on dubious legal ground under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), they are both unconstitutional.…
18 June 2013
Access is currently working with a coalition of US and international human rights organizations to demand that the US Congress investigate and halt the NSA’s pervasive surveillance program PRISM, which threatens the privacy rights of millions of internet users. Until this rights-abusing surveillance system is dismantled, there are some basic ways that you can protect the content of your internet communications from surveillance. …
13 June 2013