privacy

Melissa Ditmore reflects on release and subsequent pulling back of new application designed to collect data on sexual activity by Kinsey Institute in the USA. She outlines privacy concerns raised and how these holes can jeopardize users data. She also makes a make a case how this app once privacy gaps are fixed can assist to document unwanted and often under-reported sexual experiences, such as…

In early April 2012 in Istanbul thirty people from six continents met at the APC “Dialogue on digital security and women's human rights defenders” to discuss regional and global trends on digital security, freedom of expression and freedom of association, and their impact on women's human rights defenders. Katerina Fialova and Sonia Randhawa interviewed two of the participants to interrogate/…

I found myself being confronted with the issue of anonymity and accountability in different ways at the AWID Forum. At the Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) and Connect Your Rights events that took place just before the Forum, we discussed about the different and increasingly sophisticated ways that internet technologies have been used to erode any sense of anonymity online.

I'm sure we've all seen amazing testimony videos of incredibly sensitive subjects: of women who choose to have abortion and share why despite risking imprisonment in their country for this act of taking control of their bodies; lesbians who come out fighting against "correctional rape"; rural women living in isolated regions sharing stories of cultural violence. I cringe and wonder - do they know…

The question in the headline elicits a complicit smile. Have you ever? Or have you spied on their new partner? Or have you googled someone you just met and liked a lot? At the interactive session on “Privacy and pleasure” that was held as part of the 2012 AWID Forum there were a variety of participants, of diverse ages, that raised their hands, recognizing that both Facebook and Google are tools…

Today Gita Sen said “we are in a fierce vicious unequal new economic world where battlegrounds are many” and a few hours later in the session on “Commodification of knowledge: how increasing access and availability of the internet had transformed the way knowledge is produced and shared” a participant made us notice that “We were being watched." And it's true behind the gorgeous beauty of…

As the day passed I saw myself surrendering to the fact that there is nothing good in the laziness of a routine that prevent us from thinking about technological abuse that we as women activists can suffer and make the other suffering. When on the 18 we had the feminist tech exchange I understood that I need, I have to anonymize myself.

What are the emerging risks and challenges that women's rights advocates face in using technology for activism? How can we strategise to work more safely and securely online? What is the feminist politics of privacy, security and the right to participate on the internet? Join us at the Feminist Tech Exchange on 18 April 2012, just before the 12th AWID International Forum, to explore and exchange…

In this submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, Association for Progressive Communication (APC) acknowledges the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association to be together with the right to freedom of expression at the core of a democratic and open society and makes recommendations for how these rights can be promoted and…

The Take Back the Tech! Be Safe website section offers tips and ideas on steps women and girls can take to make their online experiences safer. It addresses security issues regarding privacy (emails, online chats, password protection, mobile phones), prevention of cyberstalking or secure online browsing.