Our Work
Founded in 2014, the Center on Privacy & Technology is a leader at the intersection of privacy, surveillance, and civil rights.
Latest Work
Privacy Center Hosts Sixth “Color of Surveillance” Conference
On November 18, 2024, the Privacy Center co-hosted "The Color of Surveillance: Surveillance / Resistance" with the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR) Institute. This conference convening leaders in the fight for justice in the digital age, who reflected on their experiences with resistance during four plenary sessions and an evening experimental opera performance. Read the full press advisory.
“Color of Surveillance: Policing of Abortion and Reproduction Reading List” blog
On June 22, 2022, the Privacy Center hosted the "Color of Surveillance: Policing of Abortion and Reproduction" conference. In preparation for the conference, the Privacy Center put together a reading list which was then posted on the Privacy Center's blog. Read the whole blog here.
“Color of Surveillance: Take action!” blog
On November 7, 2019, the Privacy Center hosted the "Color of Surveillance: Monitoring of Poor and Working People" conference. As a follow up, the Privacy Center posted a list of campaigns and organizations working to support poor and working-class communities on our blog. Read the whole blog here.
Privacy Center Hosts Fourth Color of Surveillance Conference
On November 7, 2019, the Privacy Center hosted "The Color of Surveillance: Monitoring of Poor and Working People." This conference brought together activists, artists, historians, and other experts to discuss the history of surveillance in the workplace. Read the full press advisory.
Founding Director Delivers Chavez Lecture on Privacy and Civil Rights
Founding Director Alvaro Bedoya delivered the U.S. Senator Dennis Chavez Endowed Lecture on Law & Civil Rights at the University of New Mexico School of Law. In his lecture, he drew upon the research underlying several Color of Surveillance conferences to argue that privacy should be considered a civil right, not just a civil liberty.
The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of American Religious Minorities
The third annual Color of Surveillance conference delved into the surveillance of religious minorities in the United States. In addition to discussions about this issue's contemporary impact, the conference featured a historian who spoke about the surveillance of the Pilgrims in England.
The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of American Immigrants
The second annual Color of Surveillance conference examined the issue of government surveillance of American immigrants. The event encompassed historical perspectives of immigrant surveillance in the 20th and 21st Centuries and included a discussion with Professor Xiaoxing Xi, a US-based physics professor who was falsely accused of being a spy.
National Civil Rights Leader to Address Georgetown Law Conference on Surveillance of Immigrants
In June 2017, the Privacy Center hosted "The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of American Immigrants." The conference, which featured a keynote address by Vanita Gupta, explored the surveillance of immigrants from the late 19th century to the present. Read the full press release,
The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of the African American Community
The inaugural Color of Surveillance conference focused on the disproportionate amount of government surveillance on the African American community. It hosted robust conversations on the historic and current surveillance of this group, including a debate between a Pulitzer-winning MLK biographer and the general counsel of the FBI.