Damini Satija

Hi, I’m Damini.

I work at the intersection of technology, social justice, human rights and public policy. My expertise is rooted in the nexus of technology and government, and my background spans working in the private and public sectors, advocacy and policymaking, all of which inform my political analysis of technology, society and power (and most critically, its abuse).

I am currently the Director of Amnesty Tech, a specialist 30-person team at Amnesty International working on the most urgent technology and human rights issues. I originally joined Amnesty International to set up our inaugural team on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights and the State. Learn more.

Hi, I’m Damini.

I work at the intersection of human rights, social justice and public policy.

I am Director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International. 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, where one of my focus areas was on preparing for the increased integration of AI into military domains as well as other public sector settings. I was also the UK expert at the Council of Europe's Policy Development Group on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights.I started out my career in the Bay Area working in tech and international development (driven by a commonly held global south diaspora kid's desire to correct for global inequities) 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, but in this pre-Cambridge Analytica era, I struggled to tap into a public consciousness around this issue. I believed there was an urgent need to further mobilise around the societal, political and human rights implications of data-driven technologies and I pivoted my career to policy and regulation, sitting specifically at the nexus of technology and the public sector.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 love speaking to others working in the tech justice space and understanding the journeys others took to get here! Please get in touch if you'd like to chat.

Work

Amnesty Tech is a 30-person specialist multidisciplinary team within the world's largest global human rights movement with a mission to build transformational, rights-respecting and justice oriented tech futures.We know that the current paradigm foregrounds scale, growth, profit and a consolidation of power at the expense of most people. We envision a world where a different paradigm allows us to reject repressive technologies and are coordinating a globally networked tech accountability fight.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.I first joined Amnesty to establish the Algorithmic Accountability Lab, which investigates and campaigns on the increasing use of AI systems in the public sector (what we call the 'Automated State'), and their harms on marginalised communities around the world.

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