Privacy International - Formation, Background and Objectives

Formation, Background and Objectives

During 1990, in response to increasing awareness about the globalisation of surveillance, more than a hundred privacy experts and human rights organizations from forty countries took steps to form an international organization for the protection of privacy.

Members of the new body, including computer professionals, academics, lawyers, journalists, jurists and human rights activists, had a common interest in promoting an international understanding of the importance of privacy and data protection. Meetings of the group, which took the name Privacy International (PI), were held throughout that year in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific, and members agreed to work toward the establishment of new forms of privacy advocacy at the international level. The initiative was convened and personally funded by British privacy activist Simon Davies who has since then been director of the organization.

At the time, privacy advocacy within the non-government sector was fragmented and regionalised, while at the regulatory level there was little communication between privacy officials outside the EU. Awareness of privacy issues at the international level was generated primarily through academic publications and international news reports but privacy campaigning at an international level until that time had not been feasible.

While there had for some years existed an annual international meeting of privacy regulators, the formation of Privacy International was the first successful attempt to establish a global focus on this emerging area of human rights. PI evolved as an independent, non-government network with the primary role of advocacy and support, but largely failed in its first decade to become a major international player. Most of its early campaigns were focused on Southeast Asia.

Privacy International's aims and mandate have remained largely unchanged since its inception. The organisation's Articles of Association state that its objectives are:

1. To raise awareness of and to provide education about threats to personal privacy;
2. To work at a national and international level toward the provision of strong and effective privacy law;
3. To monitor the nature, effectiveness and extent of measures to protect privacy and personal data;
4. To conduct research into threats to personal privacy;
5. To monitor and report on surveillance activities of security forces and intelligence agencies;
6. To scrutinise the nature, extent and implications of trans-border flows of information;
7. To engage in advocacy at a national and international level, such as making representations to bodies such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the OECD;
8. To seek ways through which information technology can be used in the protection of privacy.