Public Infrastructure, tech & Democracy
We research and create resources on how governments are procuring technologies with hidden carceral and exclusionary consequences—algorithms that limit eligibility for public services, cameras that surveil workers and protestors, and policing tools embedded in public utilities.
- Testimony: NYC AI and ADS Decision Making Systems NYC Technology Committee October 2024
- Testimony: Challenge Based Procurement Reform August 2024
- Report: MyCity, Inc.: A Case Against CompStat Urbanism
- Report: Smart-City Digital ID Projects: Reinforcing Inequality and Increasing Surveillance through Corporate ‘Solutions’
- Campaign to Preserve the IDNYC
- Testimony: To NYC City Council on LinkNYC
digital ID systems
Digital ID systems are quietly and rapidly remaking how identification documents like drivers licenses function in the United States and around the world. Digital ID systems are promoted by corporate vendors and governments as convenient ways to electronically verify identity, age, education, insurance, travel, health, and payment information. Governments are increasingly using Digital ID systems to sign people up for social services, utility assistance, tax refunds, opening bank accounts, buying products online or accessing age-restricted content. In places that have already adopted Digital ID systems, increased surveillance and exclusion from government services have been documented
New!
- Navigating Your State’s Digital ID System
- Updated Spreadsheet of State Digital ID Systems
- Demands for Protecting Human Dignity and Choice from Digital Identification Systems
- Digital ID Systems Movie Night Toolkit
Archive
- Community Guide: Mobile Driver’s Licenses and the Costs to Privacy, Safety, and Security
- Webinar Recording: Mobile Driver’s Licenses and the Costs to Privacy, Safety, and Security
- State mDL mapping
- Comment on DHS and TSA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on mDLs
- Community FAQs: Understanding the Risks of Digital IDs
- IDNYC Factsheet
Transnational Migration Control
We produce research and resources related to transnational digital infrastructures of control. This work includes building with human rights monitors and organizations in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.