CDT works to subject government surveillance to democratic controls and strengthen oversight of intelligence and law enforcement technology, ensuring personal safety while respecting individuals’ rights.
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New technologies are giving governments around the world unprecedented means to collect and access personal information. This includes law enforcement and intelligence agencies demanding content from tech companies and purchasing personal data such as location information from data brokers, the use of surveillance technologies such as license plate readers and facial recognition cameras, and the use of AI to analyze huge swathes of information about individuals and groups.
Much of this government surveillance is aimed at fighting crime and protecting national security, yet in order to ensure basic freedoms, there must be checks and balances on governments’ ability to access, collect, and store people’s data. Both security and freedom can be protected, but only through balanced laws and policies that uphold human rights.
CDT-led Coalition Calls for Transparency for White House AI Framework
CDT and Americans for Responsible Innovation led a broad, bipartisan coalition of over two dozen civil society groups in calling on the White House to release its Framework for review of frontier AI models.
CDT Amicus Brief Calls on Fourth Circuit to Rein In Geofence Warrants
Earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled in Chatrie v United States that the Fourth Amendment protected all cell phone location information, which CDT lauded as a landmark decision, but sent the case back down to the Fourth Circuit to assess the propriety of the geofence warrant at issue.
CDT and Partners Post Floor Alert Opposing CA SB 1013 Automated License Plate Readers Bill
The best way to ensure that Automated License Plate Readers are not abused is to limit the retention of stored data and to keep loopholes to lawful process closed. CA SB 1013 is a step in the wrong direction, and we urge the California legislature to reject this approach.
British Public Oppose Secret Surveillance Powers and Want Strong Protections for Encrypted Communications
CDT released nationally representative polling data revealing that a the British public are broadly concerned about the security, privacy, and free speech consequences of allowing law enforcement to access encrypted communications.
The British Public Reject State Access to Private Online Conversations
CDT's latest polling shows that the vast majority of the British public believe there are better ways to tackle serious crimes than accessing encrypted messages.
CDT Joins Letter and Calls on Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee to Close the Data Broker Loophole
CDT called on Senate leaders to highlight a new multi-year agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and Thomson Reuters for access to Americans’ sensitive data, calling on Congress to close the data broker loophole.
Responding to the EU-US Negotiations on Reciprocal Data Exchanges for Border Procedures
CDT Europe, together with 29 other civil society organisations and academics, sent an open joint letter to the Council of the EU regarding the worrying direction taken by the European Commission in the EU-US border negotiations with the U.S. government.
Open Joint Letter on a Public Reassessment of the EU-US Adequacy Decision
On 29 June, the US Supreme Court ruled that US President Trump can remove the leaders of independent agencies and commissions, overturning nearly 90 years of precedent limiting executive power. This decision raises serious questions about one of the key safeguards underpinning the EU-US Data Privacy Framework adopted in 2023: independent supervision.
