AI systems enable new scales of surveillance, discrimination, and manipulation. Biometric capture is expanding. Algorithmic decisions shape access to housing, credit, liberty without meaningful review.
AI innovation operates within a strong rights and freedom framework. Surveillance is constrained. Bias is measured and mitigated. Data protection is robust. People retain meaningful control over how AI affects their lives.
A Brookings Institution article argues that U.S. states have the authority and responsibility to regulate the use of AI in the criminal justice system.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published an updated guide to help journalists and advocates identify and report on surveillance technology deployed at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a blog series reflecting on how the 2011 Arab uprisings inadvertently fueled a global boom in state surveillance, including the rise of AI-driven biometrics and facial recognition.
The EU Parliament voted not to extend an interim derogation from e-Privacy rules, effectively making the voluntary mass-scanning of private chats by tech companies illegal in the EU.
Tech nonprofits, including the EFF and CDT, filed comments opposing a proposed GSA procurement rule that would require AI contractors to license their systems for "all lawful purposes," arguing it could enable mass surveillance.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation publicly criticized Google and Amazon for failing to address human rights and surveillance risks associated with their Project Nimbus AI cloud contract with the Israeli government.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) submitted a report to the UN OHCHR detailing how new digital regulations and surveillance technologies, including biometric monitoring, are being used to restrict the fundamental rights of human rights defenders globally.
Civil liberties advocates and journalists exposed that automated license plate readers are being used for traffic enforcement, contradicting vendor claims.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a newsletter and podcast episode raising privacy concerns about Meta Ray-Ban smartglasses and their surveillance capabilities.
On 18 March 2026, the Court of Rome annulled the Garante's Nov 2024 €15M fine — the only final GDPR enforcement decision against a GenAI provider. The fine had found unlawful training data processing, breach-notification failure and no age verification. Garante can appeal. Judgment no. 4153/2026, R.G. 4785/2025.
CO SB 24-205, the first US comprehensive AI anti-discrimination law, was delayed from Feb 2026 to 30 June 2026 via SB 25B-004. In March 2026, Governor Polis's AI Policy Working Group proposed a replacement bill stripping many employer compliance duties.
The Institute of Development Studies, with the African Digital Rights Network, published 'Smart City Surveillance in Africa: Mapping Chinese AI Surveillance Across 11 Countries' on 12 Mar 2026. Documents $2B+ spent by Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe on facial recognition and ANPR, with deployments used against activists, opposition figures and journalists despite no demonstrated crime-reduction effect.
The AI Now Institute published an article questioning the lack of safety guardrails for high-stakes decisions and surveillance following OpenAI's deal with the Pentagon.
On 3 Mar 2026, ~40-50 activists rallied outside OpenAI's SF HQ in a 'QuitGPT' protest against its Pentagon contract. The prior week, a larger ~500-person multi-lab march targeted DeepMind, OpenAI and Meta; ~200 protested Virginia data centers. Concerns: mass surveillance, autonomous weapons, environmental impact.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights publicly condemned the Department of Defense's campaign to pressure Anthropic into lifting restrictions on surveillance use of its AI, framing it as a 'tech-fueled domestic surveillance state.'