Technological innovation has long outpaced privacy protections. Both government and private companies are able to collect details about our private lives – what we say, what we believe, where we go, who we are with – often without our consent or even our knowledge. In New York, police have secretly deployed surveillance technologies intended for combat, flawed facial recognition technology has crept into transit hubs and our schools, and governments and courts have outsourced sensitive decision-making to biased algorithms.

This invasive surveillance has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and other populations who face bias and discrimination.

The NYCLU pushes for safeguards against overbroad, warrantless collection of sensitive information by the government, fights for transparency about the information the government sweeps up and its methods, and advocates for New Yorkers’ control over their data and who has access to it.