Murray Hunter

Senior Associate

PUBLIC LAW & POLICY, EMERGENT TECH, INFORMATION RIGHTS

COMMUNICATIONS, ADVISORY, RESEARCH, IMPACT, TRAINING

special projects

Developing international human rights law

ABOUT MURRAY

Learn more about Murray and his work

Overview

Murray Hunter is a specialist on digital rights, advocacy and communications. Before joining ALT Advisory, he held various advocacy and leadership roles at the Right2Know Campaign (2010-2012; 2014-2019), Open Secrets (2012-2013), and the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism (2020). He has also given media consulting to a range of civil society initiatives, most recently the South Africa Media Innovation Program.
Murray has authored investigative reports and publications on communications surveillance and data protection, and in 2019 published a children’s book about surveillance capitalism.
He received a Bertha Activist Fellowship in 2014, and the Ruth First Fellowship in 2021.
Academic Qualifications
- B.A in English Literature, Film Studies & Media Studies (with Distinction), B.A. Hon. in Media Theory & Practice (with Distinction) (University of Cape Town)
- M.A in Anthropology of Media (with Merit) (School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London)
Recent Publications / Presentations
- Murray Hunter, ‘Big Tsek: Joburg’s Private Surveillance Network and our Public Deficit’, African Studies (2022), prepared for the Ruth First Memorial Lecture.
- Murray Hunter, Track and trace, trial and error: Assessing South Africa’s approaches to privacy in Covid-19 digital contact tracing (2020), report for the Media Policy and Democracy Project, University of Johannesburg
- Murray Hunter & Admire Mare, A patchwork for privacy: Mapping communications surveillance laws in southern Africa (2020), report for the Media Policy and Democracy Project, University of Johannesburg
- Murray Hunter, Cops & Call Records: policing and metadata privacy in South Africa (2020), report for the Media Policy and Democracy Project, University of Johannesburg
- Murray Hunter, Boris the BabyBot: a little book about Big Data (2019)
- Murray Hunter & Tymon Smith, Spooked: Surveillance of Journalists in South Africa (2018) report for the Right2Know Campaign
- Co-author, R2K, Stop the Surveillance: Activist guide to RICA and State Surveillance in South Africa (2017), report for the Right2Know Campaign
- Murray Hunter, Big Brother Exposed: Stories of South Africa’s intelligence structures monitoring and harassing activist movements(2015), report for the Right2Know Campaign
Contact Murray

Promoting rights-based technology innovation

MURRAY’S RECENT WORK

Learn about Murray’s recent projects

Developing a civil society accreditation mechanism and national chapter framework for the Economic, Social & Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union – Advisory, Research, Public Law & Policy.
Designing a court reporting manual and developing an online portal for the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) – Communications & Design.
Facilitating a digital security training for environmental defenders – Training, Information Rights.
Presenting a seminar to the Google Fuchsia Privacy Team on privacy, safety, and surveillance – Training, Information Rights.
Assisting the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) with strategic development and fundraising – Impact.