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| Reports |
| The Price of a Meal: Forced Biometric Surveillance in Humanitarian Aid in Gaza A briefing from Skyline International for Human Rights reveals that the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has embedded biometric surveillance into its aid distribution hubs. Palestinians must provide facial scans to “reserve” a parcel in a program misleadingly framed as “voluntary.” Those who refuse face chaotic, violent, and deadly queues where food often runs out. With aid hubs monitored by drones and facial recognition systems and run by military contractors, aid becomes a tool for population control. The report warns that this so-called aid system conditions basic survival on data compliance, violating international law and setting a dangerous precedent. Read the briefing Exporting China’s Great Firewall to Autocratic Regimes New research uncovers how Chinese company, Geedge Networks, is selling a comprehensive, turnkey surveillance and censorship system with China’s Great Firewall capabilities to other governments worldwide. With support from Open Technology Fund, digital security laboratory InterSecLab analyzed a massive data leak containing more than 100,000 internal documents which reveal how Geedge Networks deploys powerful censorship and surveillance technologies across multiple countries including Ethiopia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Myanmar, as well as within China’s own provinces. This research was developed in coordination with Amnesty International, Justice for Myanmar, paper trail media, The Globe and Mail, The Tor Project, the Austrian newspaper DER STANDARD, and Follow the Money. Read the full report The Digital Police State in Bangladesh Tech Global Institute’s latest investigation maps the evolution of Bangladesh’s surveillance apparatus from colonial-era policing to a sprawling cyber-enabled system capable of real-time interception, metadata analysis, and content filtering. Drawing on procurement data, the report traces at least 160 surveillance and spyware systems, many from companies in France, Germany, the US, and the UK, sold to Bangladesh between 2015 and 2025, often via opaque intermediaries to bypass trade restrictions. The $190 million investment, the report finds, has fueled repression, dissent suppression, and shrinking civic space. Read the full report Exporting Borders: Frontex and Fortress Europe in West Africa A new report examines how the EU is expanding its migration control far beyond Europe’s borders through Frontex operations in West Africa. Framed as cooperation, these activities reinforce neocolonial influence and turn the Sahel into a securitized buffer zone. The report, co-published by Statewatch and the Transnational Institute, sheds light on how EU border externalization policies undermine rights and entrench systemic injustice in the region. Read the full report Rights and Risks for Asia’s Data Workers Techglobal Institute has released the first part of a year-long investigation into the tech and AI supply chain, focusing on labor practices and the ecosystem of content moderators in Asia. In recent years, brave whistleblowers and workers in Africa have spoken out about exploitation in the tech industry, even going so far as to pursue lawsuits and organize unions. The research aims to complement these movements by offering one of the first detailed looks at Asia- highlighting both the similarities and the differences between the two regions. Read the full report Solidarity Platform Cooperativism in Latin America A new report maps 113 initiatives across El Salvador, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, showcasing how workers in the digital economy are building hybrid models rooted in the region’s solidarity economy traditions. Covering governance, worker identities, technological adoption, and working conditions, the study offers a rich picture of platform cooperativism in practice. Read the report |
| Books & Articles |
| Internet Shutdowns in Africa This open access volume provides ten in-depth case studies of state-sponsored internet shutdowns across Africa. Contributors examine how governments use shutdowns to close civic space, suppress opposition, and maintain power. The book highlights shutdowns as tactics of war, tools to blackout news of state violence, and methods to disrupt protests. It explores the wide variety of shutdown forms, whether nationwide or local, platform-specific, or throttled connections, and their economic, social, and political consequences. The findings offer actionable insights for researchers, policymakers, and activists defending digital freedoms. Read the book Facial Recognition Surveillance: Policing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Published by Oxford University Press and co-authored by Pete Fussey and Daragh Murray, the book is based on over three decades of collective research on this topic and rare empirical access to live operations. The book is grounded in peer-reviewed ethnographic study of FRT in one of the world’s largest police forces, London’s Metropolitan Police, but also draws on subsequent developments to offer analysis of global relevance. Link to the Publisher’s Page Why Sovereignty Matters for Humanitarian Data In Big Data & Society, Aaron Martin argues that humanitarian data controversies, from unconsented biometric sharing to imposed interoperability, often mask deeper disputes over sovereignty. The paper unpacks the rise of “pseudo-sovereigns” asserting authority over humanitarian data and reframes cases from Bangladesh, Yemen, Kenya, and Ukraine through this lens to reveal how power and authority shape data governance beyond privacy concerns. Read the article The AI Revolution Comes With the Exploitation of Gig Workers Following Meta’s acquisition of data annotation platform Scale, journalists Michael Bird and Nathan Schepers spent a year investigating its subsidiary Outlier. Their findings challenge Outlier’s claims of fair pay for data workers, revealing low work volumes, meager wages, and even unpaid labor. The report exposes how AI’s “superintelligence” rests on exploitative gig work, often outsourced to the global South—benefiting big tech while workers bear the costs. Read the full article Our Data, Ourselves: Grassroots Data Sovereignty in India In Big Data & Society, S. Dutta and S. Mazumdar explore how Indian digital rights activists are reimagining data sovereignty beyond state-centric models, framing it as a tool for accountability, transparency, and justice. Through roundtables and podcast ethnography, the paper documents grassroots movements resisting both state surveillance and Big Tech’s data colonialism, offering alternative, citizen-led visions of data futures. Read the article |
| News & Commentaries |
| Draft Standards on Decent Work in the Platform Economy The International Labour Organization (ILO) has released a draft Convention and Recommendation on decent work in the platform economy, setting out proposed international labor standards for gig and platform workers. The draft includes protections around fair pay, clear contracts, safe working conditions, union rights, data use, and the right to appeal unfair deactivations. Governments are now requested to consult with the most representative organizations of workers and employers and submit comments or proposed changes to the ILO by November 2025. Read the draft Africa as a Testing Ground for China’s Global Security Initiative An in-depth analysis from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies illustrates how China is embedding its Global Security Initiative (GSI) across the continent via the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The report highlights military exchanges, joint operations, and elite training programs as early-stage implementation of the GSI. With FOCAC’s 2025–2027 Action Plan set to train thousands of military and police officials, the study raises critical questions about the implications for African sovereignty and the continent’s role in geopolitical rivalries, including risks of democratic erosion and alignment in emergent global security architectures. Read the analysis China Pilots Surveillance Model in Solomon Islands China is piloting its “Fengqiao” village surveillance model in the Solomon Islands, introducing fingerprinting, household registration, and community mapping as part of a grassroots security initiative. Revived under Xi Jinping to maintain stability through local monitoring, the system is being trialed in Honiara’s Fighter 1 community with plans for expansion. While authorities frame it as a response to rising lawlessness, critics warn of constitutional violations, cultural incompatibility, and a drift toward authoritarian governance in the Pacific. Read more Queues, Rejections, Ambiguity: The Daily Struggles of Aadhaar Users in Jharkhand A ground report by The Wire documents the Kafkaesque ordeal of Aadhaar users in Jharkhand, where citizens travel long distances, queue for hours, and face arbitrary rejections for simple updates like biometric data or name corrections. With only 88 Aadhaar Seva Kendras nationwide, increasing centralization has left the poor and rural populations most affected, some even denied pensions or school admissions due to deactivated Aadhaar. Read more |
| Podcasts |
| The Data Fix: Dopaminergic In this conversation, Rohit Revi joins Mél Hogan to explore paranoia, care, conspiracy, capitalism, and catastrophe in relation to technology and culture. The discussion delves into psychometry, the dopaminergic, and the collective psychological commons, offering a thought-provoking take on how tech shapes our inner worlds. Listen to the episode |
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