Defending privacy in the age of surveillance

This article originally appeared on Medium

Digital technology has made surveillance ubiquitous — and cheap. In New York City alone, there were 22,000+ facial recognition searches in just the last three years, mostly targeting communities of color.

NYC-based lawyer and social entrepreneur Albert Fox Cahn founded Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) to end discriminatory surveillance and push for policies that balance new technologies with age-old rights.

In this conversation, Ashoka’s Konstanze Frischen talks to Albert about how technology impacts Constitutional rights, the grey area in which law enforcement operates, and how a coalition of citizens works on updating the law to protect privacy. Here are a few highlights.

Fellow image

Albert Cahn

Ashoka Fellow since Jul 2023

United States

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, Inc.

Ashoka insight

Sweeping new surveillance tools, such as an expanded facial recognition program, are deeply troubling. The government’s will to surveil communities of color has a centuries-old history in the U.S., dating back to Colonial times. What has changed? Digital technology has gotten very cheap very quickly — while legal frameworks struggle to keep pace.

While updating the law is part of the solution, community-centered efforts to lift up and democratize the surveillance debate are critical. Albert shares his tempered approach, why some easy steps like normalizing a culture of encryption are important and actionable, and why he and S.T.O.P. are focused on structural safeguards.