Our Work
Founded in 2014, the Center on Privacy & Technology is a leader at the intersection of privacy, surveillance, and civil rights.
Latest Work
“Raiding the (U.S. Citizen) Genome” update published
The Privacy Center released new findings about who the Department of Homeland Security has been collecting DNA from. Our latest research, Raiding the (U.S. Citizen) Genome, analyzes records CBP released in response to a Privacy Center FOIA request and found that CBP has knowingly taken DNA from U.S. citizens on a regular basis, with over 2,000 samples taken from citizens between 2020 and 2024. The findings were covered by multiple news outlets including WIRED, The New York Times, The Guardian, Politico’s Morning Tech, and others. This research builds on the Privacy Center’s report Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing which explained and analyzed the drastic expansion of DNA collection at the Department of Homeland Security. DHS’s DNA collection program operates with essentially no oversight, and the DNA taken is used for future criminal policing and prosecution.
“The Department of Homeland Security Is Unlawfully Collecting DNA” article published
The Center on Privacy & Technology’s Director of Research & Advocacy Stevie Glaberson published a piece in Lawfare, "The Department of Homeland Security Is Unlawfully Collecting DNA" describing the Department of Homeland Security’s expansive and unlawful DNA collection regime. Stevie argued that the agency appears to be violating the statutory bounds of its DNA-collecting authority, is violating the constitution, and that consent of those from whom DNA is collected cannot cure these violations.
New analysis reveals Customs & Border Patrol took DNA from more than 2,000 U.S. citizens between 2020 and 2024
The Privacy Center released an update to their Raiding the Genome: How the United States Government Is Abusing Its Immigration Powers to Amass DNA for Future Policing which found that the government regularly violates federal law by knowingly taking DNA from U.S. citizens, without authority to do so. Read the full press release.
“A crypto coin for your privacy — how Altman promises the world in exchange for your biometric data” blog
"The political imagination of our elites raises the slogan “humanity first” only to display a barren concept of what it means to be human: to be a user, a consumer, and a source of data extraction." Our Fritz Fellow Dr. Marianna Poyares writes for our blog about Altman and Blania's World project and their Tools for Humanity retina scanning enterprise. Read the whole blog here.
Privacy Center sues Department of Homeland Security
The Privacy Center, together with Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and Americans for Immigrant Justice, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This legal action is in reaction to DHS’s failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding how DHS collects, stores, and uses DNA samples taken from non-citizens. Read the full press advisory.
Privacy Center quoted in Word In Black piece about school policing
Privacy Center Senior Associate Clarence Okoh was quoted in a Word In Black article titled “The Truth About School Policing.” “The consequences of policing, whether through surveillance or physical presence, yield the same outcomes. Students still face contact with the criminal legal system — it just may happen through a screen now instead of in the hallway,” said Okoh.
Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Re-Releases 2022 Report on ICE Dragnet Surveillance Practices
The Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law re-released “American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century,” with a new foreword in May 2025. The 2022 report was the first to quantify the scope of the surveillance operations being carried out by the federal government through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Today, the Trump administration is using the digital surveillance apparatus the report describes to target immigrants, activists and anyone else who challenges his agenda. Emily Tucker, the Privacy Center’s Executive Director said, “Mass surveillance is fundamentally incompatible with democratic self-governance. The danger of ICE’s data dragnet is not only that individual people will be targeted, but that our ability to act together as a people will be permanently undermined.” The full press advisory is available at this link.
Privacy Center Re-Releases 2022 Report on ICE Dragnet Surveillance Practices
The Privacy Center re-released "American Dragnet: Data Driven Deportation in the 21st Century," the first report to quantify the sweeping surveillance power of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A new foreword situates the findings against the backdrop of ICE's expansive surveillance powers in the control of an increasingly authoritarian regime. Read the full press advisory.
“Sam Altman’s World: Sometimes Things Are Just What They Seem to Be” Article in Tech Policy Press
Privacy Center Executive Director, Emily Tucker, co-authored a piece in Tech Policy Press with philosopher David McNeill, warning of the dangers of Sam Altman’s new Tools for Humanity technology. Sam Altman is “nothing special,” they say. “He is the kind of person who inevitably rises in an extractivist economic system that transparently rewards those who show contempt for laws, regulations, and the people who enact them.”
Privacy Center quoted in Word In Black piece about youth surveillance
Privacy Center Senior Associate Clarence Okoh was quoted in a Word In Black article titled “Black Students Are Being Watched Under AI — and They Know It.” “The most insidious aspect of youth surveillance in schools is how it deepens and expands the presence of law enforcement in ways that were previously impossible,” said Okoh.