Tag: Telcos

The right to communicate is being curtailed across Central African Republic (CAR), under government mandated service restrictions meant to stop political protests.

Without warning, Kenyans learned last month that Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecoms operator, had contracted with the government to provide a new communications and street-level surveillance system. The new system integrates 2,000 video surveillance cameras, video conferencing, digital radios, and a mapping system into a central command center. Worryingly, this contract likely entails many forms of street-level surveillance including license plate readers, facial recognition technology, and real-time tracking across major cities like Nairobi and Mombasa.

Vodafone, the largest international mobile provider in the world, released today the most detailed transparency report ever.

Vodafone, the world’s largest international mobile provider, released its “Law Enforcement Disclosure Report” today, which gives statistics on user data requests in 14 countries including Albania, Tanzania, Hungary, and other jurisdictions that have never before released this type of information.

The government of Switzerland has put forward a legislative proposal that would give the government new powers to surveil telecommunications and the internet. These amendments would unnecessarily expand the Swiss surveillance state by beefing up mandatory data retention laws and permitting the government to use spy technology for routine police purposes.

Access and our partners are alarmed by recent political events in Thailand; less than a week after a military coup took control of civilian institutions, the country is now witnessing a crackdown on free expression online and offline.

Access reiterates its call to DHS to investigate censorship of Mexican political protest website

Per the latest Snowden revelation, the NSA is recording all call content in at least two countries

The South Africa-based telco MTN, which operates in 21 countries across the Middle East and Africa, recently released its first Group Human Rights Policy. MTN announced its support for user rights to privacy, security, communication and information, using the Access “Telco Action Plan” as a guiding policy document.

Deutsche Telekom discloses its 2013 requests from German law enforcement.