News and Research articles on Surveillance

Voter preferences, voter manipulation, voter analytics: policy options for less surveillance and more autonomy

Jacquelyn Burkell, The University of Western Ontario
Priscilla M. Regan, George Mason University
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1438

Personalised political messaging undermines voter autonomy and the electoral process. Use of voter analytics for political communication must be regulated.

WhatsApp and political instability in Brazil: targeted messages and political radicalisation

Rafael Evangelista, State University of Campinas (Unicamp)
Fernanda Bruno, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Dec 2019 DOI: 10.14763/2019.4.1434

This paper analyses the spread of misinformation in the context of 2018 Brazilian elections. We give a general overview of the Brazilian political context, its media ecosystem and the weaponisation of the country’s most popular messaging app, WhatsApp, as a political persuasion tool. The current architecture of the platform does not allow, once appropriated for purposes of election campaigns, users to notice or become aware that they are being monitored and managed.

Internet policy and Australia’s Northern Territory Intervention

Ellie Rennie, Swinburne University of Technology
Jake Goldenfein, Swinburne University of Technology
Julian Thomas, RMIT University
PUBLISHED ON: 14 Mar 2017 DOI: 10.14763/2017.1.456

This paper is part of Australian internet policy, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guest-edited by Angela Daly and Julian Thomas. Introduction In 2007, the Australian government took a dramatic new approach to the governance and management of remote Indigenous communities. The ‘Northern Territory Intervention’, as it became commonly known, was introduced as a means to combat child abuse and domestic violence in remote Indigenous communities, and included far-reaching changes to welfare administration, employment programmes and policing. Although the Intervention, which persisted until 2012, has been the subject of a great deal of public commentary and critique, one dimension has …

From repressing digital content to repressing people

Anita R. Gohdes, University of Zurich

PUBLISHED ON: 30 Jul 2016

Turkey's strategy of repressing opposing voices in the aftermath of the failed coup of 15 July 2016 has transformed from surveilling perceived enemies and repressing specific digital content to arresting and silencing anyone who has been classified as a threat to Erdoğan's position of power.

Putting up walls around Finland's cyberspace

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 21 May 2014

There are different reactions to the revelations of US whistleblower Edward Snowden. In Finland, civil society, industry and technical experts are alarmed and concerned about a potential case of ‘NSA envy’ at the Finnish Defense Ministry.

World internet cup in Brazil - a review

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 26 Apr 2014

In an ambitious move, the Brazilian government, technical and civil society organised a meeting to address key issues of internet governance. While not everybody was happy with the final result, process-wise it was a landmark meeting.

Can human rights law bend mass surveillance?

Rikke Frank Joergensen, The Danish Institute for Human Rights
PUBLISHED ON: 27 Feb 2014 DOI: 10.14763/2014.1.249

Drawing on the example of the US surveillance operation PRISM and its impact on European citizens’ right to privacy, the author discusses what an authoritative human rights-based response could look like.

Criminal complaint filed in aftermath of security conference

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 3 Feb 2014

Early warnings by German government officials at the Munich Security Conference proved true. On February 3, the International League of Human Rights in Germany, together with the Chaos Computer Club and civic group digitalcourage filed a criminal complaint against the German government for not acting on the mass surveillance by intelligence services.

Open government data emerging, trust in government declining

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 28 Nov 2013

According to the fourth edition of the eGovernment Monitor, released on November 28, the number of users of eGovernment services in Sweden in 2013 was 53 percent, compared to 70 percent in 2012. On average, the decline in all monitored countries was as high as 8 percent.