Privacy and civil rights groups urge US colleges to end campus surveillance to protect protesters

NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of more than 30 privacy and civil rights groups called on U.S. universities Thursday to dismantle campus surveillance and data collection, to protect student protesters and others from government retaliation.

The demands, issued in a letter sent to leaders of 60 major universities and colleges, come as President Donald Trump has pressed schools to crack down on alleged antisemitism and take a harder line on demonstrations.

But the groups said it is essential that universities resist that pressure, including threats to millions of dollars in federal research grants, to preserve the academic freedom and rights to expression of their students, faculty and others.

“We are open-eyed to the financial pressure that all campuses are under,” said Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director for Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group that has counseled students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests and which joined in signing the letter. “But we think this is the moment for all campuses to hunker down” and hold the line against government interference.

In their letter, the groups called on university leaders to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies seeking to surveil, detain or deport students, and demanded they do more to secure and delete sensitive data. The letter also asked that schools reject restrictions on masks worn by some student protesters to conceal their identities, work to prevent doxxing and dismantle campus surveillance systems.

“Without immediate action, surveillance tools and the data they amass will be used to supercharge the virulent attacks on campus communities,” says the letter, coordinated by the group Fight for the Future. It was signed by 32 groups, including Amnesty International USA, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Several colleges introduced new security measures and protest guidelines following a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests in spring 2024.

The letter was sent to leaders of 60 schools, including Yale, the University of Michigan and Columbia, which last month agreed in a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus.

“Surveillance does not make a university safer,” said Will Owen of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which also signed the letter. “It chills free speech, endangers students who speak out against injustice and it’s really essential for campuses to protect their communities from the threat.”

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