The Human Rights Watch has released its World Report 2020, which is the organization’s annual review of global human rights practices. The report opens with a keynote essay by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, titled “China’s Global Threat to Human Rights.” Roth claims that “China’s government sees...
Amnesty International issued a report warning about Facebook and Google’s surveillance practices. According to the new report, the surveillance-based business model poses “a systemic threat to human rights.” As such, Surveillance Giants provides a detailed overview of Facebook and Google’s practices that undermine the right to privacy and threaten freedoms...
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report on the emerging shift toward robotic surveillance and analytics, the nature of this technology, and the privacy infringement potential that will accompany this change. This report, The Dawn of Robot Surveillance: AI, Video Analytics, and Privacy, first highlights the reasons why...
The Citizen Lab, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, released a report highlighting the growing threat of technology-facilitated violence. In a two-part series, the watchdog group provides insights into some of the most concerning manifestations of privacy violations via intimate partner surveillance...
Today in Texas, U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul will release his new “Blueprint for Southern Border Security.” As posted by Dane Schiller of “Chron” (Houston Chronicle) today, McCaul will visit Houston and Austin to unveil the new plan. What Chairman McCaul brings to this iteration of...
What constitutes an individual’s “right to privacy” in the digital realm has become a topic of heated debate across the U.S. Following the reveal of government programs that monitor, record, and store Americans’ digital communications, there has been a widespread demand to strengthen laws that protect rights to privacy, both online and...
In 2013, Edward Snowden brought to light the extent of government surveillance in the United States, exposing everything from the collection, storage, and analysis of Americans’ private emails, phone calls, and text messages by intelligence agencies nationwide. Outraged, the public called for the protection of their First and Fourth Amendment...
When it comes to applying limitations to intelligence gathering operations, it’s seen as the responsibility of the political branches of the United States to decide the legal requirements within the bounds of the Constitution. With this in mind, John D. Bates, Director of the Administrative Office of the United States...
The New America Foundation released this morning a report that poses, and seeks to answer, one of today’s most popular questions related to federal surveillance programs: “Do NSA’s Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists?” The report analyzed 225 individuals recruited by al-Qaida or like-minded groups, and charged in the U.S. with...
The Brennan Center’s newest report of the National Security and Local Police survey blows the whistle on local police information gathering and surveillance activities in the United States. The Brennan Center for Justice, a branch of New York University School of Law, concluded that “police intelligence gathering lacks standards, and...
