Damini Satija

Hi, I’m Damini.

I work at the intersection of human rights, public policy, and AI, focusing on government surveillance, algorithmic discrimination, and tech justice.

I am Director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International USA. I first joined Amnesty International to lead the Algorithmic Accountability Lab. Learn more.

Hi, I’m Damini.

I work at the intersection of human rights, public policy, and AI, focusing on government surveillance, algorithmic discrimination, and tech justice.

I am Director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International USA. I first joined Amnesty International to lead the Algorithmic Accountability Lab. Learn more.

Previously, I was Senior Policy Advisor at the Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation, an independent expert committee in the UK government working on the ethical challenges in data and AI policy. I was also the UK expert at the Council of Europe's Policy Development Group on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights.I have a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. In 2018, I was a Google Public Policy Fellow at Engine Advocacy in Washington D.C., working on tech policy issues affecting entrepreneurs in the U.S. including net neutrality, encryption laws, copyright and content moderation. I was also a Global Policy Fellow at the Institute for Technology & Society in Rio de Janeiro, where I researched the implications of assigning property rights to personal data (often called 'data ownership') and have presented this work at a multiple conferences.I started out my career in the Bay Area working in tech and international development where I saw first-hand the pervasive use of online targetted advertising and increasingly intrusive state access to personal and non-personal data to make policy decisions. I felt strongly that data-intensive systems and technologies were unjustifiably being deployed and exacerbating historic systems which either over-surveilled or systemically undocumented marginalised communities. I believed there was an urgent need to further mobilise around the human rights implications of data-driven technologies and I pivoted my career to policy and regulation.I love speaking to others working in tech and human rights, and especially those looking at algorithmic discrimination! Please get in touch if you'd like to chat.

Work

Amnesty Tech is a multidisciplinary unit within the world's largest global human rights movement with a mission to build transformational, rights-respecting and justice oriented tech futures.We seek to ensure that rapid technological advancements do not undermine our fundamental rights today, identify new threats to those rights in the future, and articulate the human rights protections needed for both.We work across a range of areas, most notably AI policy and regulation, spyware, surveillance (mass and targeted), government use of AI and automation, Big Tech accountability and children and young people’s digital rights.We leverage toolkits and participatory methods across research, campaigning, strategic communications, advocacy and litigation to investigate and expose human rights violations, seek accountability and justice with and for impacted communities and secure human rights safeguards and protections in the deployment and regulation of technologies.At the Algorithmic Accountability Lab, we investigate and campaign on the increasing use of algorithmic systems in welfare provision and social security, and their harms on marginalised communities around the world.

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