Privacy & Surveillance
Protecting the privacy vital to free thought and expression
Our laws restricting surveillance and data collection are struggling to keep pace with new technology that can track and reveal our expressive lives in ever more detail, and with new business models that rely on the aggregation and exploitation of this information.
Our work is meant to illuminate the scope and impact of surveillance by government and private corporations, promote stronger legal protections for privacy, and enrich public understanding of the interplay between privacy and the freedoms of inquiry, speech, and association.
Featured
LATEST NEWS & ANALYSIS
-
Press Statement
State Department Rule Requiring Visa Applicants to Register Their Social Media Handles is Ineffective, New Documents Say
Knight Institute renews calls for Biden administration to end policy that “infringes expressive and associational freedom”
-
Press Statement
Knight Institute and Reporters Committee File Amicus Brief in Case Challenging Electronic Device Searches at the Border
Argue warrantless device searches violate the First and Fourth Amendments
-
Press Statement
Knight Institute, Brennan Center React to Court Ruling in Documentary Film Organizations’ Challenge to Social Media Surveillance
Say social media registration requirement for visa applicants violates First Amendment
LITIGATION & ADVOCACY
-
FOIA Lawsuit
Knight Institute v. CIA
A FOIA lawsuit seeking records on the government’s use of “spyware”
-
Amicus Brief
United States v. Sultanov
An Eastern District of New York case addressing the constitutionality of warrantless cellphone searches at the border
-
FOIA Lawsuit
Knight Institute v. Department of State
A FOIA lawsuit seeking records relating to the Biden administration’s review of the use of social media identifiers in visa vetting
RESEARCH
-
Essays and Scholarship
Privacy, Autonomy, and the Dissolution of Markets
Pathways from platform capitalism
By Kiel Brennan-Marquez & Daniel Susser -
Essays and Scholarship
Licensure as Data Governance
Moving toward an industrial policy for artificial intelligence
By Frank Pasquale -
Essays and Scholarship
The Keys to the Kingdom
Mathias Vermeulen on overcoming GDPR concerns to unlock access to platform data for independent researchers
By Mathias Vermeulen
Events
In-person and online
Secret Surveillance
Countering spyware’s threats to freedom of the press and expression
10:00 am - 12:00 pm ET
Columbia Journalism School - Joseph D. Jamail Lecture Hall
Spyware and the Press
A discussion about the threat that malicious surveillance technology poses to press freedom around the world
New York, NY
A Conversation with Edward Snowden
A post-event video featuring Snowden talking about surveillance, security, and whistleblowers