Building the Technology Freedom Cooperative
Structural Zero 13
I arrived at the Invisible Institute on a sunny morning in April. The organization is housed at the Experimental Station, just south of the University of Chicago—an old brick building that is home to several nonprofit projects.
I was excited to launch this new project, and ...
The Technology Freedom Cooperative Offers Civil Society New Independence from Big Tech
We are building shared technology infrastructure: distributed storage and computing capacity to preserve, process, and analyze critical human rights files.
Human Rights Organizations Launch Technology Freedom Cooperative to Protect Critical Data and Build Independent AI Infrastructure
The TFC will help non-profit organizations protect critical evidence, reduce dependence on big tech platforms, and build independent capacity.
HRDAG Welcomes 2026 HRDAG Human Rights Fellow and Intern
Corinne is a development operations intern, and Larissa is assisting with coding, testing, and review.
Naming Police Officers Who Kill in California
One of the big questions: were the officers who killed Erik Salgado involved with other police-involved shootings previously?
Video: Tarak Shah Interview on Meet a Mathematician
"A lot of the work that’s most important to do, you can do. It’s just mostly effort that is required."
The Names that Don’t Match
There is no single authoritative list of the dead and disappeared in Sri Lanka. Instead, there are fragments: NGO reports, survivor testimony, newspaper archives, memorial websites, legal filings, local documentation projects, and handwritten records maintained by diaspora organizations.
So the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and HRDAG began trying to assemble them.
Watch Now: What is a structural zero?
“If we wait for data to be perfect, we’ll be waiting forever.”
Statistician Maria Gargiulo explains how researchers use multiple systems estimation to measure hidden victims of armed conflict and political violence.
Announcing New HRDAG Advisory Board Member
Dorothy Chou will bring to HRDAG informed insights into how to use AI in the sensitive domain of human rights.
All is Not Lost with Incomplete Datasets
Structural Zero 10: What is a "structural zero"
I’m Maria Gargiulo. I started with HRDAG as an intern in 2018 and I’ve worked with the team as a statistician since 2020. I’m currently earning my doctoral degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where my thesis explores the very statistical methods HRDAG uses to study and understand complex human rights violations around the world.
Recently, we wrote about the challenge of statistical bias: the data that is collected is seldom complete and may not be representative of the population we are ...
How Processing Body-Worn Camera Footage Led to Reform on Traffic Stops
In Northern California, Asian residents were being disproportionately stopped by sheriff’s deputies. HRDAG helped to analyze data that built a stronger case against the deputies and pushed for reform.
Who Is Missing From the Data?
We bump into sampling bias a lot in our work at HRDAG, for example when people who could be in our sample don’t submit reports whether because they fear retaliation by the perpetrators; or because potential respondents distrust the data project; or because they live in an area that’s difficult to reach; or for any number of other reasons. A big part of my job as a statistician is to think about who might be left out of the data.
HRDAG’s Year in Review: 2025
Our 2025 Year in Review explains what it means to us to stand up to tyranny, why we do it, and the risks we assume by doing so.
Yes, Your Dataset is Probably Biased
As statisticians, we bring skepticism to every dataset and every conclusion. When we make conclusions about a research topic, we offer up our evidence, reasoning, and calculations for review. Most importantly, we talk about the degree of confidence we have in our findings and how we can use scientific models to improve that confidence.
Watch Now: The Wandering Officer—New Databases for Police Accountability
What does justice look like for communities struggling with police violence?
For Cat Brooks, Co-Founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP), true justice isn’t possible. "There is no such thing as justice when we're talking about police terror and the stealing of our community members' lives,” Brooks said at a recent event co-hosted by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, APTP, Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), Community Law Enforcement Accountability Network (CLEAN) and the National Police Index (NPI).
Hosted at Kinfolx in Oakland, CA, the event ...
Teach In on Data for Police Accountability | January 22, 2026 in Oakland, CA
For decades, law enforcement agencies across the United States have operated behind walls of secrecy—particularly when officers abuse their power or use lethal force. That opacity has real consequences for communities seeking truth, justice, and accountability.
On Thursday, January 22, 2026, HRDAG is proud to co-sponsor The Wandering Officer: New Databases for Police Accountability, a public event in Oakland exploring how data, journalism, and community organizing are reshaping what’s possible for police accountability in California and beyond.
Register here. ...
Trump Administration’s Sanctions on the ICC are an Attack on the Rule of Law
The Trump Administration has issued additional sanctions against judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), further endangering accountability and justice worldwide. Attacks on the ICC were a key factor in HRDAG’s decision to speak out against tyranny in the U.S. late last year, and this ongoing pressure threatens the Court’s ability to do its vital work.
HRDAG condemns these sanctions against the International Criminal Court and calls on the Trump Administration to respect and uphold the independence of the Court.
The ICC investigates and ...
Podcast: Dr. Megan Price Explores Fact Finding in a Failed State
How do scientists and statisticians stand up to authoritarianism, especially when it happens in their home countries?
All of the ways we remember: How data scientists hold memory with and for survivors
Those most vulnerable to state violence are already marginalized and undercounted, their experiences ignored or minimized in official sources. To avoid perpetuating these harms in our analyses, we have to find ways to incorporate unofficial data sources and all of the ways we remember.
The Data are Clear: Public Engagement Improves AI Science
A lot of scientists and AI developers think that involving affected communities in AI research is probably the right thing to do, ethically. But they hesitate because they fear the messy unpredictability of human participation. They worry that even if human participation is the moral choice, it could degrade the science.