opinion
FAREWELL PRIVACY
We’ve entered the era of genetic surveillance and nothing—not even our own cells—is off-limits.
Albert Fox Cahn is the founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based civil rights and privacy group, a TED fellow, a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center, and a visiting fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. His TED Talk is available here.
opinion
WHAT FOURTH AMENDMENT?
Congress needs to put some meaningful guardrails on law enforcement’s ability to buy our data from private entities.
opinion
THEY’RE TARGETS NOW
Abortion-seekers will have targets on their backs once Roe v. Wade is overturned, and law enforcement already relies on Big Tech to track citizens.
opinion
SLIDING INTO YOUR DM’S
The world’s wealthiest man is an erratic leader, and will gain enormous power when he assumes ownership over millions of people’s personal data.
opinion
CREEPY CRYSTAL BALL
Mayor Eric Adams seemed to be cheering on new tech that will supposedly keep us safe, even as the existing tech predictably failed to do so.
opinion
NEW TOOLS, SAME ABUSES
New technologies like facial recognition and “gun detection AI” are being hyped as solutions, but they’re deeply flawed and ripe for abuse.
opinion
FUTURE SHOCK
For 20 years, biometric surveillance served as a substitute for a civil society and the rule of law. Now, those tools are in the hands of the Taliban.
opinion
‘DISGUSTING’
He’s a 77-year-old who’s hardly been in a courtroom for decades, but it’s satisfying to see the legal system take his sins seriously—and with more punishment potentially to come.
opinion
HARD PASS
It isn’t secure and it isn’t serious. It’s just more coercive theater that’s sure to fuel distrust among the already vaccine-hesitant.
opinion
THE WRONG FIX
Surveillance creep is especially disconcerting because technological advancements that automate monitoring and analysis are poised to radically enhance surveillance capabilities.