Washington People’s Privacy Network emerged from its founders’ successful electoral work to pass municipal Initiative 2 – a ban on face recognition and predictive policing software – in Bellingham WA, and intensive legislative advocacy work on Data Privacy, Automated Decisions Systems, and Digital ID bills in Washington’s 2022 Legislative session with statewide organizers. Our purpose is to engage everyday people in effective and strategic self-advocacy, and to build power and organizing capacity in communities in the process. That means clarifying and re-framing privacy as a people’s issue, a community issue, and not just as a personal right that industry and info security experts pursue.
That means: we want to organize with you!
To reach us via email use our Get involved form!
Privacy and tech justice are truly community and systemic issues – interconnecting with many other rights, and intersecting with pretty much every other social justice and systemic equity issue that we face.
After decades of companies and government agencies exploiting people’s data without any accountability — feeding our data into algorithmic systems that reinforce discrimination in policing, housing, finance, education, healthcare, immigration, employment, and other basic rights and liberties — the tide is turning in the favor of strong regulation.
Washington state is on the cutting edge of the privacy fight with our defeat of weak data privacy bills from passage, and the stand we took for the rights of our most precarious community members as legislators considered what was essentially a digital ID bill. We created educational material on Surveillance technologies used by Seattle Police Department (and potentially shared with other agencies and depts) and helped drive more public comments for consideration by the Seattle City Council on these technologies.
WA People’s Privacy Network is now tracking national privacy legislation and bill language closely, and we’re laying groundwork in community for all of the tech justice organizing work that we know lies ahead.
The focus of our work ahead is to:
- establish our infrastructure and secure funding that supports QTBIPOC-led community organizing in tech justice & data privacy spaces;
- work in coalition with communities, privacy, and tech justice organizing efforts and organizations – both state and national – and grow a powerful network able to take on big tech;
- continue to advocate effectively for people’s data privacy and tech justice laws;
- provide resources and education for how community members can protect their and each other’s privacy;
- be open to, and offer, ways to get involved in tech justice, including training other individuals and groups to engage in people’s advocacy with legislative and municipal bodies; and
- to hold meetings, listening sessions and community events to assess and meet people’s data privacy and tech justice needs.