litigate

In 2021, S.T.O.P. forged brand new pathways in the fight against surveillance. We challenged surveillance vendors and the NYPD in the courts - and we won. We also expanded our legal team, building a stronger network to fight surveillance.

Advocate & legislate

Through S.T.O.P.’s community-driven model, we partnered with activists and privacy watchdogs in New York and around the country to fight dangerous spy tools. We launched “Ban the Scan” – our campaign to outlaw facial recognition in New York – in January, and pushed for the nation’s first ban on “reverse” search warrants.

policy & REsearch educatioN

Our white papers brought much-needed attention to surveillance issues, demystified complex surveillance systems and their regulations, and countered dangerous narratives pushed by police, tech vendors, and the media. We published nearly a dozen reports on a range of topics, and conducted our first-ever surveillance census of New York City.

MEDIA

S.T.O.P. shaped the surveillance debate in the United States and abroad, emphasizing the harms of these technologies in local, national, and international outlets. We authored numerous op-eds and were featured in hundreds of articles, highlighting little-understood issues such as keyword search warrants, location tracking, and police purchasing of personal data.

COvid-19

S.T.O.P. supported the distribution of the first life-saving vaccines, while warning against investing public health resources into flashy, faulty apps. We continued to push for privacy protections for health data, and to ensure that pandemic surveillance doesn't become the new normal.