· February, 2013

Stories about Human Rights from February, 2013

Zambia: Chinese Experts to Monitor Internet?

  23 February 2013

The Zambian government has reportedly engaged Chinese experts to install a secret internet monitoring facility in the country. Information technology specialists from both the Office of the President and China are visiting communications service provider facilities to study their network architecture, in order to identify places in the network where authorities could develop interception capabilities, or a "backdoor" for monitoring. Both Zambian and Chinese authorities have declined to comment on reports about their cooperation.

GVA: Promoting User Rights at the UN

  22 February 2013

Next week, hundreds of Internet technology and policy experts will gather in Paris for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), where they will discuss and debate some of the most pressing Internet policy issues of the moment. Global Voices staff will attend the conference in an effort to voice the concerns and interests of rights-conscious Internet users in our community and around the world.

Pakistan: The “Access Is My Right” Campaign

  22 February 2013

Pakistani Internet rights NGO Bytesforall has started an online campaign about internet filtering and online censorship. Using storytelling, infographics, and more, the "Access Is My Right" campaign aims to raise Internet users' awareness about policies and practices that limit the right to free expression online.

China: Bloggers “Forced to Drink Tea” with Police

  19 February 2013

Tea-drinking culture has a very long tradition in China. However, since around 2007, Chinese netizens have started using the term "tea talk" or "forced to drink tea" (被喝茶) to describe interrogations by the internal security police. Online opinion leaders, people who write about or host online platforms for political dissent, and signatories of online petitions are all frequently "forced to drink tea" with police and asked to give up sensitive information about their political activities. This post includes tips from online opinion leader Wu Gan on how to approach a tea talk with police.

It's Time for Transparency Reports to Become the New Normal

  6 February 2013

Surveillance is a growth industry: every existing report shows that the number of government requests for user data is rising, and this trend shows no sign of abating. Transparency reports are essential to helping users understand the scope of Internet surveillance and make informed decisions about storing their sensitive data or engaging in private communications. Companies should not wait until their users are clamoring for clarification. It is time for transparency reports to become the new normal.

Surveillance Camp III: On the Expanding Online Security Market in Latin America

  6 February 2013

Recently, we wrote about how companies throughout the world increasingly face political and legal pressures to assist governments in their surveillance efforts and the many ways in which the private sector is increasingly playing a role in state surveillance. In December 2012, EFF's Surveillance and Human Rights Camp in Brazil built upon this discussion and focused a spotlight on the privatization of public security, states funding surveillance initiatives, and the lack of quantifiable research on security markets in Latin America. Here is what we learned.

Surveillance Camp II: Privatized State Surveillance

  6 February 2013

This is the second in a series of posts mapping global surveillance challenges discussed at EFF’s Surveillance Camp in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Several Global Voices Advocacy Members actively participated in the meeting. This post is a summary of what we learned.