Most of the talk about OpenAI, Anthropic and “mass surveillance” neglected to mention that widespread scraping of the web is in itself mass surveillance.
@deblbrown.bsky.social
deputy director for tech & human rights @HRW formerly @apc_news @accessnow
"Anthropic has much more in common with the Department of War than we have differences."
Sam Biddle@sambiddle.com · 5mo agoI think one of the most staggering industry shifts in my 16 years as a tech reporter is that it’s not become a question of “should our product help the government kill and/or surveil people?” but “to what extent?” www.anthropic.com/news/where-s...
Amid US/Israeli airstrikes & brutal repression, Iranians are entering day 8 of an internet shutdown, placing civilians at risk, restricting their ability to access lifesaving info & reach loved ones, and contributing to psychological harm. Iranian authorities should urgently restore internet access
Human Rights Watch@hrw.org · 5mo agoIranian authorities should immediately end the ongoing internet shutdown and communications restrictions. These shutdowns violate human rights and place civilians at further risk of serious harm.
A harrowing account by Mohammed Mhawish on surveillance tech, supported in part by US tech companies, is rewriting Gaza in real time — and what it’s doing to the people inside. nymag.com/intelligence...
Watched, Tracked, and Targeted in Gaza
Life under Israel’s all-encompassing surveillance regime.
nymag.com
X has rolled out a new feature called “About this account,” which displays the country where an account was created, is based, the date it joined X, and username changes. The feature raises serious concerns about user privacy and safety. Learn more:
X’s Location Disclosure Undermines User Safety
Since November 21, social media company X has been rolling out a new feature called “About this account,” which displays information about users that was previously not publicly disclosed.
hrw.org
This weekend, governments will head to Hanoi to sign the deeply flawed UN Convention on Cybercrime. @hrw.org and partners issue new recommendations on how governments can prevent and mitigate the human rights risks posed the treaty www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...
Joint Statement on the Signing of the UN Convention on Cybercrime
We, the undersigned organizations, remain deeply concerned that the UN Convention Against Cybercrime (UNCC) will facilitate human rights abuses across borders.
hrw.org
Vietnam’s long record of cracking down on online dissent sadly makes it a fitting host for the signing ceremony of the deeply flawed UN Convention against Cybercrime this weekend. Read more in this @thediplomat.com oped by @hrw's @deblbrown.bsky.social & me thediplomat.com/2025/10/un-t...
UN Treaty Signing Highlights Vietnam’s Curb on Online Dissent
The Cybercrime Convention will further entrench control and surveillance over peaceful expression of dissent online beyond the borders of repressive states.
thediplomat.com
Microsoft should suspend business activities that are contributing to grave human rights abuses and international crimes by the Israeli military and other Israeli government bodies. There is no time to delay.
Israel/Palestine: Microsoft Should Avoid Contributing to Rights Abuses
Microsoft should suspend business activities that are contributing to grave human rights abuses and international crimes by the Israeli military and other Israeli government bodies, Human Rights Watch...
hrw.org
New calls on Microsoft to suspend business activities that are contributing to grave human rights abuses & international crimes by the Israeli military & other government bodies www.hrw.org/news/2025/10... @hrw.org @accessnow.org @amnesty.org @7amleh.bsky.social @eff.org @fightforthefuture.org
Israel/Palestine: Microsoft Should Avoid Contributing to Rights Abuses
Microsoft should suspend business activities that are contributing to grave human rights abuses and international crimes by the Israeli military and other Israeli government bodies, Human Rights Watch...
hrw.org
If you read one thing today, let it be this by @eminacerimovic.bsky.social Survivors of genocide and starvation should not have to retell their stories and relive their trauma. But when they do, we should listen. And act. archive.ph/NCbTj
What Palestinians in Gaza are going through brings back all the trauma of my childhood in Bosnia | Opinion
In the early 1990s as Serb armed forces besieged towns, the local people and displaced people like me and my family experienced severe and persistent food shortages, writes Emina Ćerimović.
inquirer.com
The deportation of dissent. Important read of one journalist’s account www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation
As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.
newyorker.com
Why are governments talking about killer robots? 🔊 ⤵️ Governments should seize the opportunity to adopt a new international treaty to address killer robots' threats to human rights. #StopKillerRobots
New @hrw.org report: a deep dive on the gig economy in the US, by @lenasimet.bsky.social, @amostoh.bsky.social + me. It looks at 7 major platform companies, the extractive business model, and a growing workforce reliant on precarious work that denies them hard-won rights. www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...
US: Major Companies Violate Gig Workers’ Rights
Major digital labor platforms, also known as gig companies, operating in the United States misclassify gig workers as independent contractors, denying them labor rights.
hrw.org
We hosted an event on “digital authoritarianism and democratic freedom” last night at Columbia. Meanwhile there were NYPD helicopters overhead, strange surveillance vehicles like this outside, and eventually a battalion of NYPD special ops called in to end a student occupation of the library.
Turkish authorities have escalated their crackdown on free expression & social media companies are complying with arbitrary requests. On May 8 X blocked access to the account of jailed Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu Social media companies should resist Turkish state censorship www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...
Excited to join this fantastic line up of speakers for the launch of the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights index. No better time to reflect on lessons learned from a decade of pushing for accountability for tech companies. Not in DC? tune in online today at 10am ET 👇 forms.office.com/pages/respon...
One argument that I make repeatedly in my work is that many of the things that technologists call “inefficiencies” are moments where people are able to take back power from the state. You don’t want the state to have a monopoly on data because the state is not always a positive or even neutral actor
Wolfie Christl@wchr.bsky.social · last yr.CNN reports that the oligarch is building a "master database to speed-up immigration enforcement and deportations by combining sensitive data from across the federal government" with the help of Palantir, to create "targeting lists". That all sounds very very bad. edition.cnn.com/2025/04/25/p...
Those of us who live or have lived in authoritarian regimes will tell you that data collection is an obsession of authoritarianism. Not that data collection is inherently bad - but that authoritarian regimes rely on procedurality to mask the cruel reality of what they do - self absolution.
A sobering and dark, but essential read. This was a herculean effort by @hrw.org colleagues 👇 100 Human Rights Harms in 100 Days: The Trump Administration’s Assault on Rights in the US and Abroad www.hrw.org/feature/2025...
100 Human Rights Harms in 100 Days
To mark the first 100 days of President Trump's second term, Human Rights Watch has cataloged 100 of the administration’s executive policies, orders, and actions that pose significant risks to the hum...
hrw.org
My latest for @justsecurity.org on what Trump's call to eliminate “information silos” within government means for human rights. This dangerous and dystopian move underscores the desperate need for comprehensive privacy and data protection laws in the US @hrw.org www.justsecurity.org/110133/what-...
DOGE's Growing Reach into Personal Data: What it Means for Human Rights
Congress should update the Privacy Act to prevent DOGE from violating U.S. international rights obligations by creating a massive database.
justsecurity.org
Terrifying read. Sensitive personal data left exposed. Labor rights undermined. Intimidation of a whistleblower. Basic cybersecurity principles violated.
Jenna McLaughlin@jennamclaughlin.bsky.social · last yr.NEW from me: A whistleblower says DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data...and then someone posted a threatening letter to his door. www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...
Now a social security database being weaponized to cut people off from essential financial services so that they “self deport”. Putting aside the inhumanity of the approach, the list included a 13 yo & 7 other minors and may rely on faulty data www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...
Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers
By placing migrants in Social Security’s “death master file,” the Trump administration is seeking to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services.
nytimes.com
Information Silos exist for very good reasons. Do you want your medical data, tax data, social media days, etc combined in one place and made available to anyone in the federal government?
Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · last yr.In yet another crackdown on LGBT rights, Hungary’s parliament has passed a law that will outlaw LGBT Pride and similar events. The law, which penalizes organizers and attendees, also authorizes the use of facial recognition technology to identify attendees.
#Egypt: UN Experts call for release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, as his mother's life is in danger after 148 days of hunger strike @eudiplomacy.bsky.social: stop ignoring flagrant crackdown on free speech, make human rights core in future relationship www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel... @euinegypt.bsky.social
A new McCarthy era is upon us. Stupid, depressing, and dangerous as ever. I wonder whose name will carry the dunce cap in the history books. Too many are complicit. I’ll need to find upset and action, but for now I’m feeling grief at the dehumanization inherent to all this.
Heba Gowayed هبة جويد@hebagowayed.bsky.social · last yr.I am so pleased to announce a Palestinian Studies cluster hire at @huntercollege.bsky.social - we are hiring one person in the arts and another in the social sciences. This is an incredible source of pride for me as a faculty member & one of the many reasons that I feel so lucky to work here 1/
“This continuing, unauthorized disclosure of the plaintiffs' sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates is irreparable harm that money damages cannot rectify," the judge wrote.
Judge: US gov’t violated privacy law by disclosing personal data to DOGE
Disclosure of personal information to DOGE “is irreparable harm,” judge rules.
arstechnica.com
The UK should drop its order to Apple demanding access to encrypted user data. Strong encryption should be the norm, and this order threatens the rights of users worldwide www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...
UK Encryption Order Threatens Global Privacy Rights
The United Kingdom government’s order to Apple to allow access to encrypted cloud data harms the privacy rights of users in the UK and worldwide.
hrw.org
US federal employees learning what activists, journalists , and people living under repressive governments have known for years www.theverge.com/news/610951/...
Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook
Chaos in Washington, DC, is forcing some to move to new platforms.
theverge.com
Google has revised its AI Principles, scrapping a previous veto on developing AI weapons. A global industry leader suddenly abandoning its self-proclaimed prohibited uses of AI underscores why voluntary principles are not a substitute for regulation and enforceable law. www.hrw.org/news/2025/02...
Google Announces Willingness to Develop AI for Weapons
Google, a company that once went by the motto “don’t be evil,” appears to be changing tack. The tech giant on Tuesday announced significant changes to its artificial intelligence (AI) policy that had ...
hrw.org