Our Work
Founded in 2014, the Center on Privacy & Technology is a leader at the intersection of privacy, surveillance, and civil rights.
Latest Work
Who Has Your Face?
EFF has created a website to help the public learn how their face scans are used. The website draws on information uncovered by the Center in previously unpublished FOIA response documents.
Location Privacy Complaint Leads to FCC Action
Citing the Center's research and privacy, accuracy, and bias concerns, the Globe's Editorial Board recommends that the Massachusetts legislature and lawmakers across the country hit the pause button on police face recognition use.
“Some key takeaways from NIST’s report on face recognition” blog
Senior Associate Clare Garvie published a blog summarizing the National Institute of Standards and Technology's report explaining the effect of demographics on the accuracy of face recognition systems. Read the whole blog here.
NIST publishes Face Recognition Vendor Test on demographic effects
Citing the Center's 2016 report, The Perpetual Line-Up, as motivation, NIST released a report on differential error rates by race, sex, and age in face recognition algorithms. This fulfills one of our 2016 recommendations that NIST test for racial bias in the technology.
“The conversation on face recognition technology is just getting started” blog
Associate Jameson Spivack published a blog about the omnipresence of face recognition tech and the debate surrounding it. Read the whole blog here.
Policy Associate Testifies to MA Legislature on Police Face Recognition
Senior Associate Clare Garvie participated in a public panel and government workshop on the legal and ethical issues surrounding face recognition technology in Wellington, New Zealand. The events were hosted by Victoria University Wellington.
Senior Associate Presents to Portland City Council Working Group
“We’re all getting comfortable with face recognition,” Senior Associate Clare Garvie warns in a New York Times video op-ed. “But the convenience is blinding us to how risky this technology actually is, and how it is being used without us realizing.”
Center Research Supports NYTimes Exposé on Immigrant Surveillance
Investigative reporter McKenzie Funk published an exposé in The New York Times, "How ICE Picks Its Targets in the Surveillance Age." Funk's article cited the Center's research on ICE requests for face recognition searches of state DMV databases.
Senior Associate Testifies at a Utah Legislature Hearing
Senior Associate Harrison Rudolph testified against Utah's use of facial recognition searches of Utah driver's licenses for federal immigration enforcement.
Senior Associate Presents to Portland City Council Working Group
Associate Harrison Rudolph testified before the Utah Legislature's Government Operations Interim Committee about face recognition technology. The meeting followed reports about the Center's research showing Utah's ID photos had been routinely scanned by law enforcement.