CDT’s U.S. Newsletter — March Edition


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MARCH NEWSLETTER  

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CDT President and CEO Testifies on Privacy Legislation & AI Risks

In early March, CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens testified in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on two of tech policy’s most burning issues: the need for comprehensive federal privacy legislation in the U.S., and the need for the U.S. government to address the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

On March 1, Givens testified ([link removed]) at a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing, "Promoting U.S. Innovation and Individual Liberty through a National Standard for Data Privacy ([link removed])." She called on Congress to work quickly to pass strong federal privacy protections, highlighting how such legislation could protect consumers and increase business certainty.

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CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens testifies at a U.S. House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing, "Promoting U.S. Innovation and Individual Liberty through a National Standard for Data Privacy."

Said Givens, “Consumers in the U.S. are currently vulnerable to the social, psychological, and economic harms that result from abuses of their data. From housing to credit to employment, people’s data can be used to make important decisions about them, often without their knowledge. By our count, this is the 31st hearing held in the U.S. Congress on consumer privacy in the past five years: hearings that have built a detailed record about the overwhelming need for a comprehensive federal privacy law.”

The risks created by the U.S.’ lack of a federal privacy law are compounded by the growing use of AI, and on March 8, Givens testified ([link removed]) before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs’s hearing, “AI: Risks and Opportunities.”

Givens emphasized how the use of AI can affect people’s access to economic opportunities — particularly in employment, as well as housing and lending — and the administration of government services, including fraud detection and public benefits determinations.

In Case You Missed It

CDT co-authored an op-ed ([link removed]) with the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) on how to limit the risks to privacy and security posed by bluetooth trackers. The piece builds on CDT’s continued work to promote safety in these devices.

Two CDT issue briefs describe how to address problems with Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, an authority for warrantless surveillance authority meant to focus on foreigners abroad. The first brief offers a remedy to 702’s “backdoor search loophole,” ([link removed]) which enables the U.S. government to co-opt the authority to deliberately seek out Americans’ communications for generalized domestic surveillance. The second brief covers how to narrow the law’s overbroad permissions for designating targets ([link removed]) — which endanger the privacy of Americans and foreigners, and threaten U.S. business interests — while retaining access to necessary foreign intelligence information.

Following the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh — two cases with the potential to reshape the legal liability regime for online intermediaries, and with it, the free expression rights of internet users — a CDT blog post delved into three key takeaways from the arguments ([link removed]) to help understand where the Court may be headed.

CDT in the Press

CDT’s Emma Llansó spoke with Bloomberg Law ([link removed]) about the free expression cases currently at the Supreme Court: “If the court decides in the Twitter v. Taamneh case that there’s no liability, that there’s nothing Twitter did that can violate the Antiterrorism Act, it renders Gonzalez irrelevant… [It could be the] path of least resistance or a more legally conservative path for the court to say, ‘We’ll take the easier set of questions and leave the difficult Section 230 questions for another day.’”

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White and blue logo for M Labs, with "Lock and Code Cyberprotection Podcast" in white text below. Background is gradient from dark blue to light blue.

CDT’s Mallory Knodel joined the Lock & Code podcast ([link removed]) for a discussion about current threats to encryption, why encryption benefits everyone, and how building a tool to detect one legitimate harm could, in turn, create a tool to detect all sorts of legal content that other governments simply do not like.

CDT’s Jake Laperruque told Cyberscoop ([link removed]) about a campaign to renew surveillance authority Section 702: “The Intelligence Community’s request on FISA Section 702 seems both desperate and detached from the reality of how problematic this program is… Claiming the law provides ‘robust privacy and civil liberties safeguards’ for FISA 702 is like saying a tank top provides robust protection from a snowstorm.”

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Graphic for CDT’s 2023 Inaugural Spring Fling. Green and blue text are surrounded by light pink blossoms and bright red bulbs.

CDT "in Person"

Tickets and sponsorships are available now for CDT’s inaugural Spring Fling! Join CDT on April 3 for a celebration that will bring together privacy leaders from industry, civil society, and government for cocktails and good company. We hope you’ll join us — for more information, visit www.cdt.org/springfling ([link removed]) or email Elizabeth Remy at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]).

Have you listened to the latest episode of CDT’s podcast, Tech Talk ([link removed])? Host Jamal Magby dives into the ways misinformation and disinformation can have disastrous effects on election integrity and trust, both in the U.S. and abroad. Joining Jamal for the conversation are Kate Starbird, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington; CDT’s Will Adler ([link removed]), Senior Technologist for the Elections & Democracy project; and Aliya Bhatia ([link removed]), Policy Analyst for CDT’s Free Expression project.

Alexandra Givens, CDT’s President & CEO, appeared at SXSW for a featured session, “Data Privacy After Roe v. Wade ([link removed]).” She joined Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, and Nabiha Syed, president of The Markup, to discuss ways advocates are working to protect users’ privacy and access to information at this critical moment for reproductive rights. Listen to the audio of the session ([link removed]) on SXSW’s website.

Partner Spotlight

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University ([link removed]) defends the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, and public education. The Knight First Amendment Institute's new podcast, “Views on First ([link removed]),” begins with arguably the most famous Twitter handle of all – @realdonaldtrump — and the groundbreaking lawsuit establishing that the First Amendment bars public officials from blocking critics from their social media accounts. Over the course of five episodes, host Evelyn Douek, in conversation with legal experts and technologists, grapples with the thorniest questions that arise when social media collides with the First Amendment. Listen and subscribe wherever you find your podcasts.

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Photograph of Ari Goldberg. Ari Goldberg is the Communications Director at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Staff SpotlightAri Goldberg ([link removed]), Communications Director

How long have you been working in digital rights? Digital rights, just two years, since I began at CDT. But I’ve been working on human rights and global development in various capacities for around 20 years.

What is your proudest moment while here at CDT? I’d say it occurred this past weekend at the SXSW festival in Austin, when Alex took the stage with former Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards to bring awareness to the challenges of data privacy after the disastrous Dobbs ruling. There was something poetic about Richards, the daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards (and personal hero of mine) returning to the state capital to join CDT to fight for digital rights. And I went to undergrad at UT Austin and was born and raised in Texas.

What is the best book you've read recently? I can’t put two books down at the moment. One is my favorite book of all time, “Albert Speer: His Battle for Truth” about Hitler’s architect; it’s a remarkable exploration into the banal nature of evil, one man’s tortured soul, and the machinery of the Third Reich. The other is “Trust the Plan,” a new book I bought when I heard an interview on NPR last week. It’s about the QAnon movement, which fascinates me, because it’s inconceivable that thousands (millions?) of people believe a cabal of Democrats and liberals are pedophiles who are killing and eating children. So much for the digital age fostering a more rational, informed electorate. 

What is your fandom? I’m really enjoying Season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard.” The original gang is back together (mostly) and hijinks are ensuing..

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