2014 - Communications surveillance in the digital age
Credits
Global Information Society Watch 2014
Steering committee
- Anriette Esterhuysen (APC)
- Loe Schout (Hivos)
Coordinating committee
- Monique Doppert (Hivos)
- Valeria Betancourt (APC)
- Mallory Knodel (APC)
Project coordinator
- Roxana Bassi (APC)
Editor
- Alan Finlay
Assistant editor, publication production
- Lori Nordstrom (APC)
Proofreading
Themes
The myth of global online surveillance exempted from compliance with human rights
Organization
Since mid-2013 there have been continuing revelations about the implementation by the United States (US) government of a series of programmes that constitute a system for global mass online surveillance. The initiative involves several agencies, primarily led by the National Security Agency (NSA), in close cooperation with companies that provide services through the internet. The system, which mostly targets foreigners and overseas communications, has affected private communications everywhere, from heads of state to ordinary web users.
Themes
Digital surveillance
Organization
This report examines the properties that make digital communication prone to surveillance and provides a general overview of where and how this surveillance takes place. For our purpose here, any internet or phone-based communication is considered to be digital communication, but we exclude from consideration other forms of surveillance such as direct observation or photography.
Themes
A principled fight against surveillance
Organization
Years before Edward Snowden leaked his first document, human rights lawyers and activists were concerned about a dramatic expansion in law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies’ efforts to spy on the digital world. It had become evident that legal protections had not kept pace with technological developments – that the state’s practical ability to spy on the world had developed in a way that permitted it to bypass the functional limits that have historically checked its ability to spy.
Themes
Preface
The internet is a critical way to push for the progressive realisation of people’s rights – but, through communications surveillance, its potential to be used as a tool for collective, democratic action is slowly being eroded.
Using the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance as a basis, this Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) considers the state of surveillance in 53 countries. Eight thematic reports frame the key issues at stake.