Our Work
Founded in 2014, the Center on Privacy & Technology is a leader at the intersection of privacy, surveillance, and civil rights.
Latest Work
Testimony Before the NYC Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection
Justice Fellow Meg Foster testified before the NYC Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection advocating for a complete ban on facial recognition technology.
Roundtable Discussion of Cop Out: Automation in the Criminal Legal System
The Center hosted a roundtable discussion during Georgetown's Tech Society Week previewing the Center's new interactive digital narrative Cop Out: Automation in the Criminal Legal System. The discussion featured Assia Boundaoui, journalist and filmmaker behind The Feeling of Being Watched and Inverse Surveillance Project; Nasser Eledroos, Managing Director of Northeastern Law’s Center on Law, Innovation, and Creativity; Meg Foster, Justice Fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology; Puck Lo, Research Director at Community Justice Exchange; Freddy Martinez, Senior Researcher at Project on Government Oversight; and Paromita Shah, co-founder and Executive Director of Just Futures Law.
“Casting a light on “alternatives” to policing” blog
Associate Nina Wang wrote a blog on the NYPD's street lighting campaign and the problems it reveals about law enforcement surveillance technology. Read the whole blog here.
Letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Center signed on to a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) urging them to regulate the sale of "credit header" data, including names, addresses, and other sensitive personal information, which data brokers have purchased from sources like essential utility companies and sold to police and immigration enforcement. The letter's release was covered by WIRED.
“Building on the Dream: Privacy, Equity, and Civil Rights” Event
On January 18th, the Center on Privacy & Technology co-hosted "Building on the Dream: Privacy, Equity, and Civil Rights" with the Georgetown Law Tech Institute. The event featured US Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson announcing a NTIA request for comments regarding how data practices affect civil rights and a panel of privacy and civil rights experts.
Article in the University of Richmond Public Interest Law Review
Former Center on Privacy & Technology Associates Jameson Spivack and Korica Simon co-published an article in the University of Richmond Public Interest Law Review entitled "From Ban to Approval: What Virginia's Facial Recognition Technology Law Gets Wrong." The article uses Virginia’s recently passed legislation as a case study to show how legislation can fail to properly account for the harms of facial recognition technology in the law enforcement context.
Gizmodo: Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology Risks Wrongful Arrests
Clare Garvie, author of A Forensic Without the Science, was quoted in a Gizmodo article about facial recognition technology being misused as evidence and wrongfully arresting a Black man.
Newsletter on First Amendment Rights and Abortion
Former associate Korica Simon published a piece in a newsletter for the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment (IfRFA) at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University in their capacity as a former IfRFA fellow. The piece talks about new laws states have passed around abortion, the intersection the first amendment rights and whether they are constitutional.
Blog Post Named the Most-Read Tech Policy Press Contributor Post of 2022
Executive Director Emily Tucker's blog post "Artifice and Intelligence" was named the most-read Tech Policy Press Contributor post of 2022. The post explained why the Privacy Center decided to stop using the terms “artificial intelligence,” “AI,” and “machine learning” in its work to expose and mitigate the harms of digital technologies in the lives of individuals and communities.
Podcast Interview: Taking Action
Senior Associate Cynthia Khoo spoke to Daniel del Pielago, Housing Director at Empower DC, for their podcast Taking Action, a one-hour radio show aired live every Tuesday at 1pm ET on WPFW 89.3 FM. She was interviewed alongside Ben Winters, Senior Counsel and lead of the AI and Human Rights Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Cynthia and Ben spoke about algorithmic housing discrimination, as well as algorithmic discrimination more broadly.