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.
EFF, Access Now, and Data Privacy Brasil jointly published recommendations for stronger privacy and data protection in Brazil's 2026 elections, addressing AI-generated content's role in spreading electoral disinformation.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published its policy position calling for elimination of ALPR mass surveillance, arguing these systems are irredeemably harmful and urging courts and legislatures to impose strict restrictions including warrant requirements and deletion deadlines.
EFF and seven civil society organizations have written to Nottinghamshire Police calling for the immediate halt of a planned live facial recognition deployment, citing biometric mass surveillance concerns and disproportionate targeting of young people.
OpenAI announced zero data retention for its frontier AI models, offering customers the option to prevent their data from being stored or used for training.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) published guidance setting data protection governance standards for police use of facial recognition technology, advancing regulatory expectations for oversight of biometric surveillance.
Germany's regulatory authority has announced that Apple will revise its app data consent policies, requiring improved user control over data sharing—a regulatory intervention compelling one of the largest app platform operators to surface user privacy rights more clearly in its ecosystem.
MIT Technology Review critiques defenses of Flock Safety's license plate reader platform updates, applying sustained journalistic pressure on the company's nationwide AI-powered police surveillance network.
Police-tech firm Flock Safety announces changes to officer access on its nationwide AI-powered license plate reader network after growing backlash over mass surveillance and police abuse concerns forces contract losses.
EFF documented systematic over-enforcement by Meta's algorithmic content moderation against reproductive health information, filing a formal public comment to the Meta Oversight Board with approximately 100 documented cases of harm to healthcare providers, clinics, and advocates.
The FTC announced it will no longer pursue disparate-impact or unfair discrimination claims, removing a key federal enforcement mechanism applicable to algorithmic discrimination by AI systems.
The EFF exposes PatronScan's ID-scanning and database-sharing network at LGBTQ+ bars in SF's Castro district, raising civil society alarm about surveillance of a vulnerable community and potential violations of California's ID privacy law.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors stalled a vote on a resolution supporting California AB 2654, which bans surveillance pricing, after the SF Chamber of Commerce lobbied against it. EFF is urging supervisors to reconsider.
An Indian transgender person's experience with Meta's AI-powered smart glasses being used without consent fueled civil society backlash and advanced public debate on AI-enabled surveillance and privacy rights.
MIT Technology Review reports new research showing LLMs can develop their own biases in hiring beyond training data inheritance, raising concerns about AI resume-screening fairness.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to nearly triple AI-powered autonomous surveillance towers at U.S. borders to 2,300 by 2034, with over $1 billion in federal funding from the One Big Beautiful Act. The towers deploy AI-based radar, thermal, and optical tracking systems in border communities.