In May 2018, more than 30 US-based civil society organisations sent a public letter to Amazon, asking the company to stop providing its facial recognition system – Rekognition – to the US government. This month, several Amazon shareholders wrote to the company's CEO Jeff Bezos, expressing concerns over Rekognition and the selling of the technology [...]

In May 2018, a bill was introduced in the US Congress under the heading 'Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018', intending to 'assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in preventing emerging threats from unmanned aircraft and vehicles'. The bill would, among others, authorise the DHS or the Department of Justice to take actions necessary [...]

In a public letter addressed to Amazon, more than 30 USA-based civil society organisations ask the company to stop providing facial recognition technology to the US government. The letter focuses on the Amazon-developed Rekognition system, described by Amazon as a tool that can identify people in real-time by instantaneously searching databases containing tens of millions [...]

In May 2018, the Internet Society and  African Union Commission (AUC) launched the Personal Data Protection Guidelines for Africa in Dakar, Senegal. The guidelines provide a model for the continent where only 17 out of 55 countries have comprehensive data protection laws. They seek enhancement of trust in the digital economy through privacy protection and [...]

The Government of Canada and the Government of the French Republic issued a ‘Joint Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the Digital Space’. The Declaration reaffirms the sovereign right of States to adopt policies and measures to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital space, recalls protection and promotion of cultural diversity [...]

The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act was signed into law on 22 March by President Donald Trump. The new legislation amends the 1986 Stored Communications Act to allow federal law enforcement to compel U.S.-based technology companies via warrant or subpoena to provide requested data stored on servers regardless of where in the [...]

Following similar developments in Brazil and Paraguay last year, and Honduras, which was covered in our February update, the government of Nicaragua is now pushing forward legislative initiatives regarding the use of social networks in the country. Vice President Rosario Murillo, President Daniel Ortega’s wife, claimed that the use of the social networks is negatively [...]

Joseph Olaoluwa reports in The Nation Online that the Nigerian Senate passed the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill, following approval by the House of Representatives in December 2017. Olaoluwa notes that 'The bill provides progressive legislative backing to online speech in the country', and that the bill also supports freedom of expression and privacy. Nigeria's [...]

Amnesty International has released its The State of the World’s Human Rights 2017/18, which covers 159 countries. Amnesty's announcement reports that 'In 2017, the world witnessed a rollback of human rights', and that, among many other points, 'Internet controls were strengthened'. Among Internet issues in particular, the report notes (excerpts):  Cameroon and Togo blocked the internet to [...]

The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the Future of Humanity Institute, Open AI, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several other academic and civil society organisations released a report on 'The malicious use of artificial intelligence: forecasting, prevention, and mitigation'. The report outlines security threats that could be generated by malicious use of artificial intelligence (AI) [...]