Privacy International has been observing the increasing use of digital surveillance technologies to target and monitor human rights defenders in the digital age.
This statement was originally published on privacyinternational.org on 15 May 2026.
Privacy International provided a submission to inform the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 58/23 on “Human rights defenders and new and emerging technologies: protecting human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, in the digital age”.
Our submission identifies some key trends, with examples, responding to some of the questions posed in the call for submission. Including:
- Digital communications:
- SOCMINT
- Technology-facilitated attacks on social media platforms and digital communications
- Specific risks faced by women human rights defenders (HRDs) and HRDs from groups affected by marginalisation and discrimination on online platforms and communications services
- Digital restrictions to privacy:
- IMSI catchers
- Spyware
- Mobile phone extraction
- The expansion of biometric surveillance infrastructure
- Increased monitoring of public and digital spaces technological and regulatory developments relating to encryption
- Recommendations
Introduction
Privacy International (PI) is a non-governmental organisation that conducts research and advocates globally against government and corporate abuses of data and technology.1 It exposes harm and abuses, mobilises allies globally, campaigns with the public for solutions, and pressures companies and governments to change.
We welcome the opportunity to inform the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights pursuant to HRC resolution 58/23 on “Human rights defenders and new and emerging technologies: protecting human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, in the digital age”.2
PI has been observing the increasing use of digital surveillance technologies to target and monitor human rights defenders (HRDs) in the digital age. We also note that a surveillance ecosystem characterised by the increased capacity of law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies to surveil the population at large, invariably affect the activities of HRDs. In recent years PI conducted a range of surveys with different categories of HRDs (as described in the examples below) documenting how HRDs are increasingly concerned by being monitored by state agents and how this is evidentially having a chilling effect on the exercise of freedom of expression, assembly and association and other rights. In the sections below we identify some key trends, with examples, responding to some of the questions posed in the call for submission.
Download the full report: PI response to OHCHR – HRDs in the digital age – Final .pdf
