Surveillance Watch
Quick update: The Cybercrime Treaty was adopted without a vote last week at the United Nations in New York. It will move to ratification, operationalisation and extension through the UN General Assembly agenda setting sessions in September-October. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/0724--un-cybercrime/
The links you've been waiting for
- "The CCP is not simply building an ever greater firewall," according to Open Technology Fund https://www.opentech.fund/news/otfs-nat-kretchun-testifies-on-the-great-firewall-and-the-ccps-export-of-its-techno-authoritarian-surveillance-state/
- Community networks experts: APC is hiring https://www.apc.org/en/node/40288/
- Apply to be the next Char of the Internet Research Task Force https://www.iab.org/announcements/call-for-nominations-internet-research-task-force-irtf-chair
- New from Consumer Reports: Details on the People-Search Site Removal services industry https://innovation.consumerreports.org/new-report-data-defense-evaluating-people-search-site-removal-services
- Signal blocked in Russia and Venezuela https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/9/24217008/signal-blocked-venezuela-russia
- So much for Google’s web privacy commitments https://cdt.org/insights/so-much-for-the-privacy-sandbox-google-backtracks-on-commitment-to-deprecate-third-party-cookies
- Unambiguous statement from the W3C that third party cookies are incompatible with security, privacy, free expression goals of the open web https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/web-without-3p-cookies
- Flipboard announces it's users can now be part of the fediverse https://wedistribute.org/2024/08/flipboard-fediverse-following/
- Sign up: Workshop series led by veteran organizers and campaign strategists Andrea Dehlendorf and Brandi Collins-Dexter will focus on "strategies for understanding and challenging how AI and digital technologies and the concentrated power of the technology sector, are impacting communities and workers in personal, social, political, and economic realms." https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-bQsgTZiLnHQkXA3dgDLhUTepfIDG6diLT_yzj7SbNj5bvg/viewform
Guest essay from Esra'a Al Shafei on a new project Surveillance Watch
We know that surveillance technology and spyware are consistently being used to target and suppress journalists, dissidents, and human rights advocates everywhere.
So today, we are pleased to announce the launch of Surveillance Watch, an interactive map and resource that documents the hidden connections within the opaque surveillance industry:
Founded by privacy advocates from the Global Majority, most of whom were personally harmed by surveillance tech, our mission is to shed light on the companies profiting from this exploitation with significant risk to our lives.
By mapping out the intricate web of surveillance companies, their subsidiaries, partners, and financial backers, we hope to expose the enablers fueling this industry's extensive rights violations, ensuring they cannot evade accountability for being complicit in this abuse.
This project would not have been possible without the early support of DAIR, Logic(s) Magazine and the AI Now Institute. Special thanks go to Dr. Timnit Gebru in particular for her help, and The Tor Project for encouraging us to embark on this work.
Outside of the core costs of running this project, the research was committed entirely by volunteers. If you’re interested in helping support the effort, please get in touch.
Global Majority organizations do not get sufficient support in this space, and it’s causing our communities to lag behind on the significant progress that needs to be made on this front. Your support and partnership would mean a lot to us.