Research

We are associated with Digital Fourth Amendment Research and Education, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that focuses on producing empirical, peer-reviewed research into the surveillance state.

The Snowden revelations opened up a vast new field for researchers interested in the Fourth Amendment, its applicability to online environments, and its use and misuse to justify mass surveillance by the US government. “Surveillance Studies”, a subfield of sociology, has existed for many years and is influential in Canada and the European Union, but surveillance studies scholars have typically not used empirical tools to create a common set of facts to contextualize the discussion on surveillance and government power. That is our goal.

Our first working paper, Government Surveillance and Internet Search Behavior, co-authored by board members Alex Marthews and Catherine Tucker, is under review at Management Science.

Our second working paper, The Impact of Online Surveillance on Behavior, appeared in the 2017 Cambridge Handbook of Surveillance Law.

Our third working paper, Blockchain and Identity Persistence, is part of an IMF/Georgetown research project on cryptoassets, and will become publicly available in 2019.

Future working papers include work on predictive policing and demographic effects of responses to surveillance, incorporating insights from law, economics, marketing and computer science. As we grow, we will be offering small grants to scholars to pursue this kind of research. If you are interested in helping support us, please contact Board President Alex Marthews.