Data Brokers, Don’t Help Build Muslim Registry or Facilitate Mass Deportations

Today, because of the risks that big data could be exploited to violate human rights of Muslims, migrants or others in the United States, the undersigned 17 organizations are sending letters to nearly 50 data brokers in the United States. We are calling on them to disclose whether they have refused requests to share data with the government, what steps they take to make sure their activities do not lead to human rights abuses, and to take the following pledge:

We will not allow our data, or services, to be purchased or otherwise used in ways that could lead to violations of the human rights of Muslims or immigrants in the United States. If we cannot guarantee that our data, or services, will not ultimately be used for such purposes, we will refuse to provide them.

Signed:

Center for Democracy & Technology

Center for Media Justice

Alvaro M. Bedoya, Executive Director, Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law

Color of Change

Media Mobilizing Project

DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving)

Brian Hofer, Member, Oakland Privacy; Chair, City of Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Amnesty International

18 Million Rising

CREDO Action

The Greenlining Institute

Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic

Open Technology Institute at New America

Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)

World Privacy Forum

National Immigration Law Center