A Year After It All Closed Down

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Friend,   A year ago, I sent a somber newsletter, letting you know about our decision to close S.T.O.P.’s offices. As we take time on this anniversary to look back, remember, and grieve, I also want to take a moment to highlight what our staff accomplished, persevering through trials I never imagined they would have to endure.   As I said last March, “history teaches us that moments of crisis are when the values of a democracy are truly tested. These are the times when novel threats breathe new life into age-old bigotries and civil rights watchdogs are needed most.” Sadly, at the time, I didn’t know just how extreme that danger was.   A year later, our offices are still shuttered, but our work has only grown. Since last March, S.T.O.P. became a leading voice on surveillance in the COVID-19 era. We published groundbreaking research on contact tracing apps, remote proctoring, and public health technologies. We fought for novel privacy protections, working with a broad coalition to pass the first contact tracing privacy law in the country here in New York.   And this fight is far from over. In recent days, thousands viewed our symposium with Yale Law School’s Privacy Lab on the bias, invasiveness, and inaccessibility of remote proctoring technology. And we have once again found the national spotlight, warning about the dangers of vaccine passports on CBS, Fox Business, NPR, The Washington Post, WIRED, and other outlets.   The public health and civil rights risks from the pandemic remain quite real, but working together we know that we can continue to push back on tracking technologies that undermine public health and civil rights.   With thanks, Albert Fox Cahn, Esq. Executive Director Listen To Our Podcast! Our Team Share Tweet Forward