Citations
Surveillance and Human Rights Principles are launched at 24th Session of the Human Rights Council
September 22, 2013 - by Fabiola Carrión. The Principles are presented at a side event of the UN Human Rights Council’s 24th session.
SourceSurveillance and Its Discontents
June 12, 2014 - A Conversation Across Cyberspace with Edward Snowden and John Perry Barlow
Source“What we really need to think about is what we want to allow in the rules of play to be in society not just for governments but for everyone. There is an organization of academics and specialists, experts on surveillance policies and human rights around the world who have been working extensively on this and last year they proposed something called the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance. It’s called the Thirteen Principles and basically it boils down to any information that’s collected and used has to be used for purposes that are necessary and proportionate to the sort of case that we’re encountering.” Edward Snowden
Surveillance and metadata collection in Canada
September 15, 2014 - by Stéphane Couture and Catherine Pappas.
SourceFollowing revelations from US spy contractor Edward Snowden, it has become increasingly clear that Canada’s intelligence agencies are routinely collecting personal data from a variety of sources for both political and economic reasons. This report provides an analysis of the political and legal framework for understanding privacy and data protection laws and regulations in Canada in the age of ubiquitous surveillance.
Taking Stock: Emerging Issues Internet Surveillance
October 25, 2013 - by 2013 Internet Governance Forum
SourceThe feasibility of transatlantic privacy-protective standards for surveillance
September 1, 2014 - Ian Brown, in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology
Additionally, a joint set of principles endorsed by over 200 NGOs argues:
Where States seek assistance for law enforcement purposes, the principle of dual criminality should be applied. States may not use mutual legal assistance processes and foreign requests for protected information to circumvent domestic legal restrictions on communications surveillance. Mutual legal assistance processes and other agreements should be clearly documented, publicly available, and subject to guarantees of procedural fairness.27
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- International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance,10 July 2013 <https://en.necessaryandproportionate.org/text>accessed 6 August 2014.
The FinFisher Case
September 18, 2014 - by Cédric Laurant and Monserrat Laguna Osorio.
SourceThe right to privacy is protected by the Mexican Constitution, which establishes that the privacy of one’s person, family, residence, documents or possessions cannot be violated. In addition, the constitution recognises the human rights established in it, and those included in international treaties that Mexico has signed. However, it was not until 2007 that Mexico started to regulate the area of data protection: the constitution was amended in order to guarantee the right to data protection and established that any interference in communications must be approved by a judge. In July 2010, Congress enacted the Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties (LFPDPPP). The scope of this law only applies to individuals and companies, not government and other public entities. Today there is doubt about whether Mexico has adequate laws and institutions to deal with any violation of their citizens’ rights in terms of privacy and data protection, considering that the responsible party might be its own government.
The legacy and legality of 12333
September 12, 2014 - by Josh Levy.
SourceIn December 1981 President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333, giving U.S. intelligence agencies more power to direct federal agencies to conduct surveillance. More than 20 years later, George W. Bush signed two more executive orders that strengthened and expanded these same powers. President Obama has continued the legacy of, and expanded his administration’s authority under, the order. Executive orders are not the result of debated legislation — they’re embodiments of executive authority, rendered unilaterally and, on occasion, secretly — and as such they aren’t subject to oversight or review by the judiciary or by Congress, much less scrutiny from the general public.
The Necessary and Proportionate Principles and the US government
September 16, 2014 - by Amie Stepanovich, Drew Mitnick, and Kayla Robinson.
SourceThe Obama administration’s principles provide a framework for US compliance with its own stated objectives (the US Framework). The US Framework largely mirrors several of the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance (Principles), an evaluative framework for assessing how human rights obligations and norms apply when conducting surveillance. This report compares US surveillance practices to its own stated Framework and the Principles.
The quest for privacy in Slovakia: The case of data retention
September 16, 2014 - by Martin Husovec and Lubomir Lukic.
SourceAfter the Data Retention Directive was implemented at the national level throughout the EU, the resulting legislation was subject to numerous challenges at the national level. In April 2014, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) – in its historical role as a constitutional court for the Union – repealed the entire Data Retention Directive and also broadly quashed any future hopes for similarly farreaching measures. This, however, did not exhaust the advocacy role for civil society groups. Today, there is a great need to sweep clean numerous postdirective consequences. In Slovakia, this entails the review of the Act on Electronic Communications and some other acts. This report outlines the struggle of launching a challenge against the implementation of the directive in Slovakia.
The urgent need for MLAT reform
September 12, 2014 - by Drew Mitnick.
SourceThe process for sharing criminal investigation information between countries is broken. This article describes why MLAT reform is urgently needed.