The Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) and our partners—the Invisible Institute, Innocence & Justice Louisiana, Data Cívica, and Kilómetro Cero—launched the Technology Freedom Cooperative in August 2026. The Cooperative creates shared, distributed storage and computing capacity to preserve, process, and analyze critical human rights data. The Cooperative stores encrypted copies of this data across multiple physical locations and legal jurisdictions, including Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Europe. If one jurisdiction becomes hostile to our work, backup copies remain accessible so researchers can continue their vital work without interruption.

Principles of data preservation

A core principle of HRDAG is “don’t lose the data.” Fulfilling this principle requires two key measures: (1) maintaining multiple redundant copies of all active data across distinct geographic locations and political jurisdictions; and (2) verifying that these copies remain unaltered and uncorrupted over time.

Expanding resources

There’s another key piece of the Technology Freedom Cooperative that goes beyond data storage. We are also building the technical capacity for our organizations to use artificial intelligence in ways that suit the unique needs of human rights researchers.

Building capacity within civil society

The Technology Freedom Cooperative isn’t just about physical infrastructure for data driven nonprofits. We’re also teaching a generation of researchers within these nonprofits how to manage the servers and steward their data.

Thank you

This initiative is made possible through the generous support of our funders, particularly the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Aspiration. Their funding provided necessary hardware resources and supported the technical staff time dedicated to building the Cooperative.

Read more about the Technology Freedom Cooperative 

The Technology Freedom Cooperative Offers Civil Society New Independence from Big Tech by Megan Price