Center for Democracy & Technology

10/13/2026

Meet Simon! At thirteen years old, Simon has already been to nine states (plus Washington, DC)! He’s a lifelong advocate for free expression, offline and online, and a firm believer that AI should respect people’s rights. He has strong opinions & isn’t afraid to share them. Owner: Ariana Aboulafia

10/12/2026

A safer internet for children is an important goal. But the EU’s proposed Kids Act must not come at the expense of fundamental rights or democratic process, writes CDT Europe’s Asha Allen in Tech Policy Press.

The proposal includes welcome safety-by-design measures, but raises serious concerns around age assurance, privacy, free expression and access to info. As the law moves forward, Asha argues that democratic scrutiny and meaningful consultation must come first.

EU's push for a safer internet for children must not come at the expense of the democratic scrutiny needed to get digital regulation right, writes Asha Allen.

10/12/2026

AI use in schools is growing, but many school leaders lack clear guidance on how to adopt it responsibly. CDT’s School Leader’s Toolkit for Responsible AI offers practical tools to help leaders make informed decisions about AI use in their schools.
The toolkit explores how school leaders can expand AI’s benefits while protecting students, staff and families, with a focus on equity, privacy, security and public trust. Read the full toolkit:

This toolkit focuses on another important area: how school leaders can oversee AI uses in their building, including their own uses of AI in their daily work, in ways that are responsible, effective, and strategic and honor their responsibilities to students, staff, and the broader school community.

10/09/2026

“EFF and CDT have opposed [KOSA] from the opposite direction, arguing that a duty of care is vague enough to drive platforms toward aggressive age verification and content filtering rather than toward genuine privacy-by-design reforms.”
“The CDT wrote to the Commerce Committee, arguing in its August 2026 letter to Cruz that privacy-focused legislation ‘would help to address some of the root causes animating the concerns for kids' safety online.’"

Kids Online Safety Act faces a compressed lame-duck clock after Sen. Rand Paul blocked a September 30 unanimous consent vote, forcing supporters onto a cloture path that must clear 60 senators, a full floor debate, and a bicameral conference on the duty-of-care provision before January 3, 2027 --

10/08/2026

“But legal requirements raise their own problems, said Matt O’Shaughnessy, a former State Department and Congressional staffer now at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights advocacy group.”
“When an assessment is done simply to meet a legal requirement, organizations are more likely to do the minimum that they need to do in order to comply, [O’Shaughnessy] and his colleagues recently concluded in a set of AI evaluation guidelines for policymakers”
CDT’s O’Shaughnessy: “It can make it harder for assessors to get the buy-in they need to make deeper changes in companies.”
“The guidelines from [CDT] warn that properly evaluating AI models requires a considerable range of skills, including experts in everything from privacy to mental health to cybersecurity to bias outputs and physical safety.”
“On top of that, audits should also examine incentive structures inside AI companies in addition to the technology itself, the [CDT]guidelines say.” Read the full guidelines: https://cdt.org/insights/getting-third-party-ai-assessment-right/

In summary California and dozens of countries want mandatory AI audits, conducted by AI evaluators. Lawmakers are still learning about the job — and its pitfalls.

10/08/2026

Tech Prom 2026 is coming up! 🎉 Join CDT on Nov. 12 at The LINE DC for our signature celebration and fundraiser, bringing together leaders and innovators shaping the future of tech and AI policy. https://cdt.org/events/2026-tech-prom/
From government and industry to civil society, Tech Prom brings the people working to ensure technology works for everyone into one room. Reserve your seat or learn about sponsorship opportunities: https://cdt.org/events/2026-tech-prom/

10/07/2026

CDT’s Kate Ruane in EdWeek: “How do we actually teach kids how to become experts while using this technology and become experts in the technology itself, as they age?”
Ruane: “We have to be integrating support for kids’ education throughout their life cycle. I don’t think bans necessarily accomplish that, so let’s think about it a little bit differently and in a more supportive way that guides them along the process.”

Panelists put forward ideas on how to incentivize industry to develop responsible products.

10/07/2026

“Under the waiver request before the FCC, some state & fed laws protecting against deception & voter intimidation would continue to prohibit certain misleading election-related messages. But granting it could weaken a major deterrent for bad actors, said [CDT’s] Tim Harper.”
“Harper, from CDT, said there also could be a privacy risk for voters who might not know how an AI agent on the line with them is capturing or repurposing their data.”

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a request to loosen rules on political robocalls, including those with AI-generated voices.

10/07/2026

CDT joined a coalition led by the National Fair Housing Alliance to comment on NIST’s TEVV-Athlon Framework for Evaluating AI Systems, which offers guidance for testing, evaluating, verifying and validating AI systems.

Our comments urge NIST to strengthen the framework’s focus on discovery-oriented evaluation, real-world contexts, multilingual and multicultural uses, public participation and emerging systems like agentic AI. Read the full comments:

CDT joined a coalition led by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on its TEVV-Athlon Framework for Evaluating AI Systems. The draft framework provides structured guidance for organizations to test, evaluate, verify...

10/06/2026

A recent Second Circuit ruling allows warrantless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at the border. In a new piece for Tech Policy Press, CDT’s Jake Laperruque examines what the ruling means for digital privacy.
CBP conducted nearly 20,000 searches of electronic devices between April and June 2026, nearly double the number from early 2023. Jake explains why smartphones, which can contain the intimate details of our lives, require stronger privacy protections at the border.

The ruling ensures international travel to the US will continue to come with significant costs to privacy, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Jake Laperruque.