July 15, 2024

Grantee Partner Spotlight: Surveillance Technology Oversight Project

by Leticia Murillo

The Ms. Foundation is proud to support our grantee partners, who are at the forefront of organizing and creating solutions that improve people’s lives and bring us closer to achieving a true democracy. The insight and perspective they provide is invaluable. The Q&A below was generated by Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Development Manager Leticia Murillo.

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Development (S.T.O.P) litigates and advocates for privacy, working to abolish local governments’ systems of mass surveillance. Their work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, Indigenous peoples, and communities of color, particularly the unique trauma of anti-Black policing. S.T.O.P is an Activist Care and Collaboration Fund grantee partner. 

What brought you to this work?

Central to our mission of abolishing local governments’ systems of mass surveillance, S.T.O.P.’s work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance and attends to the privacy needs of communities at disproportionate risk. Well before SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and lawmakers across the country began to pass harsher anti-trans legislation, we knew that surveillance technology would be weaponized to enforce these restrictions on bodily autonomy. Therefore, we began taking steps to highlight these discriminatory and invasive surveillance practices by publishing research reports and hosting educational events – the purpose of which were to equip impacted individuals with digital safety best practices and to encourage local lawmakers to act against the surveillance technologies putting abortion and gender-affirming care seekers at risk.

How do you connect/collaborate in your community? Who are your key partners?

S.T.O.P. partners with leaders in the reproductive and trans/gender nonconforming (TGNC) justice spaces to foster community awareness of this targeted surveillance and highlight the resources and best practices that are available to impacted community members. Just this past year, we collaborated with local drag artist Esther (@EstherNewYork on Instagram and TikTok) to raise awareness about how big data and technology track, out, and criminalize LGBTQIA+ folks and expression of all kinds. Building off our report, Roadblock to Care: Barriers to Out-of-State Travel for Abortion and Gender Affirming Care, S.T.O.P. is partnering with Planned Parenthood to release a pamphlet on surveillance and abortion travel. We have also offered technical assistance and privacy recommendations to local groups, including NYC for Abortion Rights.

What are you learning or what are you teaching?

S.T.O.P. aims to educate abortion and gender-affirming care seekers about the ways they may be tracked and the best practices to minimize surveillance. For example, in our report, Roadblock to Care, we rank different travel modes and accommodations based on how vulnerable they are to tracking and law enforcement encounters. While this information is empowering, we know that it is not enough to protect those seeking abortion and gender-affirming care. This is why S.T.O.P.’s educational work also aims to inform lawmakers, big tech, and care providers about the harmful impact that commercial and government surveillance has on abortion and gender-affirming care access. Notably, our latest report, Anti-Abortion Ad Tech: Ad Tech Puts Abortion Seekers At Risk, recommends that abortion care providers immediately remove commercial trackers from their website. 

Tell us about a recent victory or something you’re proud of.

In December, we welcomed a privacy update from Google that restricts Google Maps’ location history to the user’s device. This update means that law enforcement will no longer be able to use geofence warrants, an invasive and unconstitutional dragnet that identifies all device users within a particular radius at a specific time, to collect Google users’ location data. S.T.O.P., alongside fellow privacy and reproductive rights advocates, have issued several warnings to lawmakers and tech companies about the risks that geofence warrants pose to abortion seekers – particularly concerned that police would issue geofence warrants on coordinates containing abortion clinics, including those within pro-choice states. Google’s update upsets law enforcement’s use of this tactic to enforce abortion bans. We hope that more tech companies will adopt similar policies and that the local, state, and federal government will pass a complete ban on geofence and keyword search warrants.

What can philanthropy do better and/or how can individuals be helpful allies?

Philanthropy can do better by addressing the intersectionality of surveillance issues in the funding landscape. Oftentimes, surveillance is reduced to a niche technological concern, overlooking its life-threatening consequences. Pregnant people seeking abortions and LGBTQIA+ individuals seeking gender-affirming care can attest to how tracking of travel, financial transactions, and every step they take poses real risks in their journeys and threatens their well-being. An array of organizations leading work in immigrant justice, gender justice, racial justice, and much more, lack the capacity to address how surveillance threatens their communities. By broadening the typical funding silos and understanding how many different kinds of work intersect, organizations can partner and collaborate in ways that will produce stronger positive impacts within the communities they serve.

What gives you hope?

As an organization, we derive our hope from the strength and determination of our partners and fellow advocates. The local justice community has grown more unified in our opposition to these devastating court decisions and laws attacking reproductive freedoms and gender expression. As our coalition builds, more people recognize how surveillance impacts their communities and understand the urgent need to ban it.