surveillance

There are myriad mobile phone apps meant to be deployed for personal safety, but technical wizardry perhaps makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that technology is not a saviour but a tool or an enabler. Technology alone cannot be the panacea of a problem that is deeply complex and, in reality, rooted in society and governance.

No one person rules the internet and internet governance is constantly changing. Therefore one can assume we need to dictate what we allow and what we do not. Just as greatly as we fight to protect our physical realities, why not do the same for our virtual worlds?

The incident involving the prime minister highlights why there is growing concern over the governance and regulation of communication surveillance, and how it is being used to infringe on one’s right to privacy in Uganda. Because this case affected a high-ranking Ugandan official, the question is, how safe is the ordinary Ugandan? And from a gender activist perspective, what are the gender…

Have we taken over the internet or has it taken us over? Are we using or being used by the internet? How can we resist the globalised commodification of the internet and defend it as open, diffused, decentralised and subversive? Is the divide between our online and offline lives blurring? Is this empowering or threatening? Many fascinating questions that look not for a definite and absolute…

Recording cameras everywhere, facial recognition software, gait-recognition technology, unauthorized collection of pictures: It is widely known now that private companies are working with states on surveillance, but does this affect women and girls in a particular way? “While online security is for everyone, women and girls are frequent targets of malicious attacks online, and they suffer greater…

“The neighbour resembling plastic-bag-recording Ricky in American Beauty, who takes surreptitious pictures of you while collecting the day’s post. That picture of me that I posted 7 years ago on MySpace that’s now doing the rounds on some misogynistic Reddit thread. That nanny cam set up to protect your 6-year-old niece whose footage ends up on a child porn site. For most women, Big Brother lives…

In the article Sex and Surveillance published by Aljazeera , Naomi Wolf gives her own interesting take on a recent storm of sexual scandals involving public figures, such as the head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and raises some interesting points and questions.

The increasing prevalence of the internet in all aspect of our lives is becoming impossible to ignore, and that it is becoming pivotal in the realisation of our fundamental rights and freedoms. At the same session of the UN Human Rights Council, where the role of the internet on the right to freedom of opinion and expression is being reported by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression…

First developed in 2001-2002 by APC members and partner organisations at Internet Rights workshops held in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa and updated in 2006, the APC Internet Rights Charter enshrines the rights of people and organisations to use the internet freely, particularly in their work for social, economic and environmental justice. The Charter refers specifically to the internet…

Reporting from the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Jac sm Kee discovers some interesting initiatives that help young people combat intimate partner abuse, that look at physical abuse, financial abuse and violations of privacy, among others. She also reports back on discussions about the effectiveness of the CSW and CEDAW in furthering the movement for gender equality.