WITNESS Endorses International Principles on Human Rights & Surveillance
We join 150+ organizations from 40+ countries supporting these 13 principles that explain how international human rights law applies to the current digital environment.
We join 150+ organizations from 40+ countries supporting these 13 principles that explain how international human rights law applies to the current digital environment.
In my last post I looked at how facial recognition technology (FRT) works, how it’s now in our phones, social networks and media management, and how legislators and regulators are reacting to this. But it’s also increasingly used by law enforcement and for surveillance of “public” spaces.
Before you pick up a camera, be prepared with the right equipment and plan so you can film safely and effectively.
You probably know a 26-year-old woman. Is she your sister? Friend, or daughter? Perhaps she’s fiery and stubborn. Perhaps she takes singing lessons. Perhaps she’s engaged to be married.
WITNESS is at #SXSWInteractive, one of the world’s largest conferences focused on interactive technologies and online innovation.
Recently, I logged into my Twitter.com account. Twitter users know, this is not a frequent occurrence because most of us use third-party applications like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or any of the mobile apps. But it is a necessity, especially as an activist, in order to help keep the information on your account safe and secure.
Since 2009, our partner organization in Cambodia, LICADHO, has been using video to document forced evictions and land-grabbing. We met the Venerable Loun Sovath, a Buddhist monk, through our work with LICADHO. His tireless campaigning for those at risk of forced eviction in Cambodia, has repeatedly put him at risk.
About a week ago WITNESS participated in it’s first “hack day ” at the 2010 Open Video Conference here in New York. Several hours (and pizzas) later, we came up with this:
This is the fourth in an occasional blog series about human rights video, written by Steve Grove, Head of News & Politics at YouTube, and Sameer Padania, former Hub Manager at WITNESS, cross-posted from YouTube’s blog. As always, we welcome your comments and feedback.
Government police shutting down farmer’s protests in China. A tobacco company employing under-age workers in Kazakhstan. Iranian merchants striking to protest tax increases in Tehran.
Our good friend Ethan has done it again, drawing the connection between a recent viral meme, anti-censorship, and human rights in an article on World Changing.
A 16 digit number used as a key to decrypt HD-DVDs became the center of an online revolt against internet censorship yesterday, when it was posted on several blogs, and attempts to stop its proliferation only led to increased popularity.
My interest in the situation has less to do with DVD hacking and more to do with the question of how sensitive information can spread on the Internet. The spread of the number is something of a perfect storm. Many of the techno-libertarians who populate sites like Digg have no great sympathy for digital rights management or the DMCA. The clandestine information – a 16 digit number – is really small, and can be spread through numerous different methods. (As cryptographers have observed, it’s much easier to stop the spread of the video files, which are gigabytes in size, that targeting less that a kilobyte of information…)
Guess video will still be a problem for the foreseeable future.
