08/08/2023

Is it possible to consider the limits of the violation of privacy in the times we live in?
Can we protect ourselves from rules that interfere with our personal lives? As shown in Phantom Parrot, a whole society can be investigated just using one thing: a smartphone.

The film tells the story of a human rights activist who is stopped at the airport for a security check and is held in custody because he refused to give security his phone passwords. This moment is followed by months and years of fighting for the right for privacy. The film presents how tools and programs threaten this right, in undetectable ways by intelligence services in the UK. 

The ramifications of the threat to privacy in these modern forms originate from post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws in America. In England, the police services have the right to detain various individuals by creating situations, like in the documentary, where individuals are forced to hand over their data. Director Stonehill said that this issue has created deep problems and a very high number of people encounter this problem also because of racial prejudice.

“The heart of this story is that it's operating under a law that was passed seven years before the iPhone was created and is now being used as a policy to gather secret data. Unlike before, we now live in an age where there is an unprecedented amount of data, and the issue of surveillance makes people question ”if they should be afraid of themselves" - said the director Stonehill, highlighting the importance of being vigilant how we use our phones and laptops. 

In the documentary, we follow the story of Muhamet Rabbani, as well as the discovery of the Phantom Parrot program, a secret intelligence program that keeps all the personal data of individuals as they fly into airports. Because of this, boundaries between personal and public information are blurred, and we should have the opportunity to draft better laws for the digital rights of individuals.

During the Q&A, the director Kate Stonehill said that she had taken security measures into account when making the documentary. She said this was a delicate issue and she found that it was important to be careful when maintaining contact with people who are potentially being surveyed.

If you want to see this documentary at DokuFest, you can watch it on August 9, at 20:00 in Sonar Cinema.

By: Blerina Kanxha

Photo: Agon Dana