Tag: Telcos

Today, Access delivered a petition signed by 3,000 users to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the use of so-called “zombie cookies” by mobile carriers to track their customers’ web traffic. Access also delivered a similar petition to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because both agencies arguably have the authority to investigate these harmful practices.

Access has submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court about the SMS shutdown in the Central African Republic during June and July 2014. The submission supports the latest ICC investigation into crimes against humanity in CAR, the Court’s second probe into the “endless” list of atrocities perpetrated there.

Access has been fighting the use of supercookies since last fall, when we learned that the mobile carrier Verizon Wireless had been secretly injecting Unique Identifier Headers, or UIDH, into every single http request made by its mobile users. Recently, we learned even more disturbing news about mobile tracking on Verizon and other cell phone carriers over the past few weeks. Even without this type of third-party abuse, though, the very existence of these cookies violates our privacy rights if we can’t truly opt out.

This week, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ordered a full shutdown of internet and SMS traffic in response to protests against the government. The shutdown is just the latest example of telcos complying with government censorship orders, albeit reluctantly.

An Indian telecoms lawyer explains new encroachments on net neutrality in India.

To shed more light on the dark landscape of government surveillance online, Access has pushed for greater transparency from companies on the requests they receive to share data and disrupt networks.

62,000 Users Rally to Challenge Mobile Tracking by Verizon and other major carriers.

In September 2014, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) released a working paper on best practices for stakeholder engagement in human rights due diligence. This paper, focusing on challenges faced by ICT companies when trying to engage with rights holders, was jointly produced with the Center for Democracy and Technology and commissioned by Microsoft’s Technology and Human Rights Center.

The sweeping new powers contained in Australia’s terror laws have the potential to violate privacy and expression rights of Australians and non-Australians and to “strike at the heart of press freedom.” The terror laws create a mutually reinforcing surveillance scheme, greatly restricting the spaces in which people are free to think and to act on and offline.

On October 22nd, twenty-seven new European Commissioners selected by President-Elect Jean-Claude Juncker are set to be confirmed by the European Parliament. In the 5 years ahead, a certain number of these incoming Commissioners will have a huge influence on digital rights and security issues that impact the lives of European citizens and, indirectly, the rest of the world.