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MAY NEWSLETTER  

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Calling for Privacy and Equity Protections in COVID-19 Fight

Each passing week brings new developments in the fight against COVID-19, and at the Center for Democracy & Technology, we are fighting to keep digital rights front and center in those conversations. To inform tech’s role in the response, we formed the Coronavirus: Data for Life and Liberty Task Force ([link removed]). It brings together individuals from companies and civil society organizations, lawyers, academics, health professionals, and technologists to explore whether and how data can be used to fight the pandemic while preserving civil liberties. Through initial task force discussions, we released some preliminary observations ([link removed]) about approaches to using data in the fight against the coronavirus.

We also called on the White House ([link removed]) to set guidelines for protecting privacy and ensuring equity for individuals and communities in the response to COVID-19, and cautioned against tech and data tools that fail to account for differences among demographics ([link removed]). When developing apps and software, companies must ensure that the data they use accurately reflects how the coronavirus has varying impacts on different parts of society, and helps meet the needs of the underserved instead of obscuring their unique challenges.

One challenge is that tens of millions of people in the U.S. lack access to the internet ([link removed]), limiting their access to information, communications, education, and job opportunities. We called for the U.S. government, and governments around the world, to recognize that broadband internet access is a fundamental utility and to support deployment to areas still without service.

For more information on how CDT is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit cdt.org/coronavirus ([link removed]), and read more about our approach here ([link removed]).

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In Case You Missed It

CDT is as old as the commercial internet, and we were one of the very first advocacy groups working to build civil rights into the foundation of the digital world. In our 2019 Annual Report ([link removed]), we reflect on our 25 years in tech policy, show what we have accomplished lately, and look to the future.

U.S. Sens. Wyden, Gillibrand, Casey, Brown and Eshoo released ([link removed]) the Invest in Child Safety Act, which would create mandatory funding for efforts to prevent and enforce against online child sex abuse. Said Chris Calabrese, our VP for Policy, "The Invest in Child Safety Act will make a dramatic impact in combating child sexual exploitation without undermining critical internet security infrastructure or invading the privacy of innocent people. Congressional leaders should make its passage a priority over the coming year." The bill avoids many of the threats the EARN IT Act ([link removed]) posed to online free expression, and is also endorsed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Family Online Safety Institute, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, among others.

In briefs filed over the past few years in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org ([link removed]), CDT urged courts to clarify that the law belongs to the people. The State of Georgia sued the owner of a website for offering a free digital version of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, claiming copyright infringement. The claim was based on the annotations to the code, though the annotated version is the only one recognized by the state. In a welcome decision, the Supreme Court recently found ([link removed]) that legislators, when acting in the course of their duties, cannot be “authors” for the purpose of copyright.

CDT in the Press

Gold House named ([link removed]) Lydia X.Z. Brown ([link removed]), a recent addition to CDT’s Privacy & Data team, to its 2020 A100. The list honors the Asians and Asian American & Pacific Islanders with the greatest impact on American culture. Lydia is spotlighted for their advocacy and organizing work on algorithmic fairness and justice for multiply-marginalized disabled people. Congratulations and welcome, Lydia!

CDT’s Greg Nojeim talked to the Washington Post ([link removed]) about the Supreme Court possibly reining in the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, a law meant to guard against hacking into websites that is often used to hand down stifling and disproportionate penalties: “This is about whether a statute should be drafted so broadly that everyone is committing crimes all the time and the government gets to choose who to prosecute.”

CDT's Michelle Richardson spoke with Politico Pro ([link removed]) about how the coronavirus crisis will shape federal privacy legislation: "By having a really explicit conversation about how data is used in these moments, whether companies are going too far … I think it actually is useful for the bigger picture of how we craft the law," she said.

Partner Spotlight

There are thousands of remarkable entrepreneurs, creatives, investors, educators, and activists of color using the internet and tech to change the very nature of business and opportunity. Full Color Future ([link removed]) is a think tank and advocacy organization committed to changing the narrative about people of color in media, tech, and innovation. They aim to provide policymakers and policy stakeholders with an important — though largely untapped — resource of expertise by connecting them to practitioners, and by analyzing relevant policy issues through the lens of multicultural leaders in tech. They are committed to lifting up those leaders, ensuring their place at policy tables, and providing the necessary analysis and engagement for public policies that sustain the future of the internet and technology as a story of justice and opportunity. Check out their Future of the Internet ([link removed]) report for a sample of how they are changing the dialogue around tech policy.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Full Color Future has been addressing inequities in our society and broadband connectivity ([link removed]), tele-health, economic and digital opportunity, innovation, future of work and privacy have never been more important. Additionally, Full Color Future Board Chair Mignon Clyburn urged ([link removed]) her former colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission to take bold steps to reduce or eliminate the cost of prison phone calls in light of COVID-19.

Staff Spotlight
Mana Azarmi, Policy Counsel, Freedom, Security, and Technology Project

How long have you been working in digital rights? I worked on a couple of projects at the intersection of human rights and technology in law school, but I have been working in the field full time here at CDT since I graduated in 2017.

What is your proudest moment while here at CDT? I'm grateful I get to work with a team of people who are exceptional human beings and rockstar professionals. 

What is the best book you've read recently? Paul Beatty's The Sellout and before that, Svetlana Alexievich's Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets.

What is the most recent cultural activity you've been to? Thanks to the Internet, I was able to virtually celebrate Iranian New Year with friends and family. I've also enjoyed watching—along with it seems all of Twitter—the ESPN docuseries The Last Dance. But as far as "been to", one of the last in person cultural activities I attended was a concert featuring Super Diamond, a Neil Diamond tribute band, at the 9:30 Club.

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