Civil and Human Rights Coalition Praises White House Emphasis on Big Data Implications for Civil Rights

WASHINGTON – Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement in response to today’s interim progress report on the White House’s big data and privacy effort. Last year, The Leadership Conference partnered with 13 other civil and human rights and technology organizations to release a set of civil rights principles for the era of big data:

“We applaud the White House and executive branch agencies for their strong and continued focus on civil rights in the context of big data, as reflected in today’s progress report on the administration’s big data initiative. One year into this important effort, a diverse assortment of stakeholders has recognized the significance of these technologies for civil rights, and begun to map specific civil rights risks and opportunities across this new technological landscape.

We welcome the announcement of a forthcoming Domestic Policy Council/Office of Science and Technology Policy study that will ‘take a deeper dive into how big data interacts with issues like employment and access to credit,’ and look forward to engaging with that process to share what we’ve learned and to identify new opportunities for collaboration.

We also commend and encourage the administration’s effort to strengthen privacy and civil liberties oversight of commercial databases that are relied upon by the federal government.

We support the Department of Justice’s continuing efforts to shape the federal and local use of emerging law enforcement technologies, including predictive policing, body-worn cameras, and other new surveillance tools. We look forward to providing continued civil rights input into these efforts. We believe the administration has an opportunity and responsibility, as it funds the procurement and rollout of these new tools, to ensure that they are implemented in ways that enhance and protect civil and human rights.

We look forward to working together with the administration and with agencies at all levels to carry forward this important work.”

Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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