Carnegie Council Launches Tool Mapping the Impact of Data Fusion Technology on Freedom, Security, and Human Rights

The free-to-access resource was developed by the Council's Ethics Accelerator initiative

NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs released a new educational resource and interactive tool showcasing the civil liberties implications of data fusion technology, particularly with respect to freedom, security, and human rights.

Access the Interactive Tool on Data Fusion

Data-extracting technology is everywhere: Individuals are surrounded by devices that capture revealing information about behaviors, interests, beliefs, and location. In isolation, one or two of these datapoints may seem inconsequential. But what happens when a technology automates analysis of the data we create as we go about our lives?

In response, Carnegie Council's Ethics Accelerator convened expert practitioners in law, governance, media, and technology to grapple with the critical ethical issues and questions related to the development and deployment of data fusion technology, with the goal of generating a publicly available tool that communities, policymakers, and practitioners can immediately leverage.

"For far too long automated surveillance fusion programs have been proliferating, both nationally and internationally, without the rigorous public scrutiny afforded to other technologies like facial recognition," said Arthur Holland Michel, Carnegie Council senior fellow and Ethics Accelerator lead. "And yet its impacts on our most fundamental rights can be equally profound. This tool seeks to correct that imbalance and create a springboard for public awareness and discourse around this urgent issue."

For additional resources on data fusion, members of the public are encouraged to visit the Council's Ethics Accelerator page and to share the tool with their communities and on social media using the hashtags #datafusion #ethicsempowered. The Carnegie Ethics Accelerator is generously supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

About Carnegie Council
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an independent nonprofit that works to empower ethics globally by identifying and addressing the most critical ethical issues of today and tomorrow. Founded by Andrew Carnegie over a century ago, we set the global ethical agenda and work for an ethical future by convening leading experts, building active communities, producing agenda-setting resources, and catalyzing the creation of ethical solutions to global problems. Join us in using the power of ethics to build a better world. Carnegie Council is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) institution. For more information, please visit CarnegieCouncil.org, subscribe to "Carnegie Council" wherever you get your podcasts, and engage with us on LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.

SOURCE Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs