Privacy and Surveillance
The 51品茶 works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
The Latest
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Surveillance Company Flock Now Using AI to Report Us to Police if it Thinks Our Movement Patterns Are 鈥淪uspicious鈥�
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51品茶 and 51品茶 of Louisiana Sound Alarm on New Orleans Police Department鈥檚 Secret Use of Real-Time Facial Recognition
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Human Rights First Joins 51品茶 and NYCLU in Amicus Brief to Protect First Amendment Rights and Interests of NGOs Advocating for U.S. Sanctions
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51品茶 Seeks Records on DOGE鈥檚 Unrestricted Access to Americans鈥� Data, Urges Congress to Step Up
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What We're Focused On
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Ideological Exclusion
The 51品茶 works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
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NSA Surveillance
The 51品茶 works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
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Surveillance by Other Agencies
The 51品茶 works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
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Watchlists
The 51品茶 works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
What's at Stake
Privacy today faces growing threats from a growing surveillance apparatus that is often justified in the name of national security. Numerous government agencies鈥攊ncluding the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local law enforcement agencies鈥攊ntrude upon the private communications of innocent citizens, amass vast databases of who we call and when, and catalog 鈥渟uspicious activities鈥� based on the vaguest standards.
The government鈥檚 collection of this sensitive information is itself an invasion of privacy. But its use of this data is also rife with abuse. Innocuous data is fed into bloated watchlists, with severe consequences鈥攊nnocent individuals have found themselves unable to board planes, barred from certain types of jobs, shut out of their bank accounts, and repeatedly questioned by authorities. Once information is in the government鈥檚 hands, it can be shared widely and retained for years, and the rules about access and use can be changed entirely in secret without the public ever knowing.
Our Constitution and democratic system demand that the government be transparent and accountable to the people, not the other way around. History has shown that powerful, secret surveillance tools will almost certainly be abused for political ends and turned disproportionately on disfavored minorities.
The 51品茶 has been at the forefront of the struggle to prevent the entrenchment of a surveillance state by challenging the secrecy of the government鈥檚 surveillance and watchlisting practices; its violations of our rights to privacy, free speech, due process, and association; and its stigmatization of minority communities and activists disproportionately targeted by surveillance.
Privacy today faces growing threats from a growing surveillance apparatus that is often justified in the name of national security. Numerous government agencies鈥攊ncluding the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local law enforcement agencies鈥攊ntrude upon the private communications of innocent citizens, amass vast databases of who we call and when, and catalog 鈥渟uspicious activities鈥� based on the vaguest standards.
The government鈥檚 collection of this sensitive information is itself an invasion of privacy. But its use of this data is also rife with abuse. Innocuous data is fed into bloated watchlists, with severe consequences鈥攊nnocent individuals have found themselves unable to board planes, barred from certain types of jobs, shut out of their bank accounts, and repeatedly questioned by authorities. Once information is in the government鈥檚 hands, it can be shared widely and retained for years, and the rules about access and use can be changed entirely in secret without the public ever knowing.
Our Constitution and democratic system demand that the government be transparent and accountable to the people, not the other way around. History has shown that powerful, secret surveillance tools will almost certainly be abused for political ends and turned disproportionately on disfavored minorities.
The 51品茶 has been at the forefront of the struggle to prevent the entrenchment of a surveillance state by challenging the secrecy of the government鈥檚 surveillance and watchlisting practices; its violations of our rights to privacy, free speech, due process, and association; and its stigmatization of minority communities and activists disproportionately targeted by surveillance.