
Privacy & Surveillance
Protecting the privacy vital to free thought and expression
Our laws restricting surveillance and data collection are struggling to keep pace with new technology that can track and reveal our expressive lives in ever more detail, and with new business models that rely on the aggregation and exploitation of this information.
Our work is meant to illuminate the scope and impact of surveillance by government and private corporations, promote stronger legal protections for privacy, and enrich public understanding of the interplay between privacy and the freedoms of inquiry, speech, and association.
Featured
Deep Dive
Pegasus spyware was used to hack reporters’ phones. I’m suing its creators
When you’re infected by Pegasus, spies effectively hold a clone of your phone – we’re fighting back
By Nelson Rauda ZablahLATEST NEWS & ANALYSIS
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Deep Dive
NYC’s nightmarish plan to prohibit physical mail in jails should be abandoned
A move to digitize this correspondence has proved in the past to dramatically undermine the expressive and privacy rights of both incarcerated and unincarcerated people
By Stephanie Krent -
Deep Dive : Press Freedom
Pegasus spyware was used to hack reporters’ phones. I’m suing its creators
When you’re infected by Pegasus, spies effectively hold a clone of your phone – we’re fighting back
By Nelson Rauda Zablah
LITIGATION & ADVOCACY
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FOIA Lawsuit
Knight Institute v. Department of State
A FOIA lawsuit seeking records relating to the Biden administration’s review of the use of social media identifiers in visa vetting
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FOIA Lawsuit
Knight Institute v. CIA
A FOIA lawsuit seeking records on the government’s use of “spyware”
RESEARCH
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Essays and Scholarship
Privacy, Autonomy, and the Dissolution of Markets
Pathways from platform capitalism
By Kiel Brennan-Marquez & Daniel Susser -
Essays and Scholarship
Licensure as Data Governance
Moving toward an industrial policy for artificial intelligence
By Frank Pasquale -
Essays and Scholarship
The Keys to the Kingdom
Mathias Vermeulen on overcoming GDPR concerns to unlock access to platform data for independent researchers
By Mathias Vermeulen
Events
Columbia Journalism School - Joseph D. Jamail Lecture Hall
Spyware and the Press
A discussion about the threat that malicious surveillance technology poses to press freedom around the world
New York, NY
A Conversation with Edward Snowden
A post-event video featuring Snowden talking about surveillance, security, and whistleblowers
Columbia University, New York, NY
Protecting Privacy in the "Golden Age" of Surveillance
Joan Feigenbaum and Robert S. Litt discuss encryption, surveillance, law enforcement, and privacy with Knight Institute Senior Staff Attorney Alex Abdo