Privacy & Data
We support the right to privacy and to full control over personal data and information online at all levels. We reject practices by states and private companies to use data for profit and to manipulate behaviour online. Surveillance is the historical tool of patriarchy, used to control and restrict women’s bodies, speech and activism. We pay equal attention to surveillance practices by individuals, the private sector, the state and non-state actors.
Background
Surveillance has historically functioned as an oppressive tool to control women’s bodies and sexual expression outside of heteronormative discourse. Both states and corporations are heavily invested in mining and analyzing big data, often using underhanded, non-consensual methods by holding users' information and communications needs as ransom. Women and queers are especially vulnerable to violations of privacy as they must resist cultural and family practices of surveillance as well. While this is a familiar issue for feminists, the mass-scale implications of technological developments certainly present new challenges and highlight the need to work aggressively towards privacy and data protection for ICT users.
