Show Notes
This week we speak to Ioannis, a senior lawyer at PI, about his and his colleague's work on the landmark case protecting encyrption at the European Court of Human Rights: Podchasov v. Russia.
The case dealt with a Russian law obliging telecommunications service providers to indiscriminately retain content and communications data for certain time periods, as well as a 2017 disclosure order by the Russian Federal Security Service requiring Telegram Messenger company to disclose technical information which would facilitate “the decoding of communications”.
Links:
PI case page: https://privacyinternational.org/legal-action/podchasov-v-russia
ECtHR judgment in the Podchasov case: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-230854
PI's work on encryption: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/encryption
PI's report on End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): https://privacyinternational.org/report/4949/securing-privacy-end-end-encryption
More information about the Marper case: http://www.genewatch.org/sub-563146
More from Technology Pill
From Spiderman, to Toy Story, to One Night Only, this week we’re talking about some of the summers biggest and weirdest movies, as we think about the use of technology and surveillance in film. Links - Silicon valley has a science fiction problem: https://aeon.co/essays/silicon-valley-has-a-science-fiction-problem - One night only Guardian review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/05/one-night-only-movie-review NY Times review: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/movies/one-night-only-review.html
This week we're talking about how the militarisation of tech is shaping civic spaces and what 'dual use' technology actually means with Sophie from Corporate Watch.
This week we're talking to Marianne from SMEX about their new report looking at the differing dynamics of producing, testing, and deployment of militarised technology across the Southwest Asia and Northern African region (SWANA).
This week we're discussing borders, biometrics and more, as we take a look at what kind of surveillance you might experience if you're traveling to the World Cup, or to the EU schengen area. Acronyms - ETIAS: European Travel Information and Authorisation System (new for visa exempt; no biometrics - run by a central unit operated by frontex; this is where manual checks carried out if automated checks flag problems) - VIS: Visa information System (obvs for visas; age lowered to 6? - will soon check other systems) - EES: Entry/Exit system (biometrics on entry; records all border crossings) - CIR: Common Identity Repository (only non-eu citizens; weak anti-discrimination; identity info from visa and ta - data from other databases lives here and is used for purposes beyond travel e.g. police checks in country) - Eurodac: (all asylum seekers, and trying to add undocumented migrants) - ECRIS-TCN: European Criminal Records Information System for Third-Country Nationals (data on non-EU citizens convicted in one or more EU member state) - SIS: schengen information system (an EU database for police, judicial and border control/cooperation, to see whether they are wanted by the police or subject to an entry ban; checked on crossing external schengen border inc eu citizens) - MID: Multiple-Identity Detector - SLTED: Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database (checked on crossing external schengen border inc eu citizens)
This week we're joined by Bill Goodwin, investigations editor at Computer Weekly and award-winning journalist, to discuss Europol's secret shadow IT system — and what it tells us about how law enforcement agencies evade oversight. Links Computer Weekly investigation: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366642525/They-protect-the-law-while-breaking-it-Inside-Europols-shadow-IT-system We Are Solomon: https://wearesolomon.com/en/mag/focus-area/accountability/they-protect-the-law-while-breaking-it-inside-europols-shadow-it-system/ Privacy International's 2019 FOI on Europol: https://privacyinternational.org/report/3225/challenging-drivers-surveillance-eu-access-documents-requests Spanish police and cryptophone intercepts: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366643318/Spanish-police-systematically-hid-cryptophone-intercepts-from-courts-claims-ex-chief Bill's case Goodwin v United Kingdom: https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/goodwin-v-united-kingdom/ The Independent — Reporter's rights violated: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/reporter-s-rights-violated-1438583.html Horizon Parliamentary committee on Horizon redress: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/365/business-and-trade-committee/news/212661/post-office-horizon-it-scandal-serious-structural-failings-persist-in-redress/ Bill at TCIJ on breaking the Horizon story: https://tcij.org/summer-conference-event/breaking-horizon-post-office-scandal/