Did you know that international law protects freedom of thought?

This means that you have the right not to be manipulated, to keep your thoughts private and not to be penalized for your thoughts alone.

That seems simple enough — how could anyone know what you’re thinking and use it against you?

Sadly, our inner freedom is threatened by technological and scientific developments specifically designed to get inside our heads.

Here are just a few examples:

Emotion recognition technology can be used to predict our state of mind — are we happy, sad or angry? That information can be used to change how we think, feel and, ultimately, behave.

But it can also be used to predict whether we are thinking about committing a crime. Or as evidence used to prove states of mind in legal proceedings.

Researchers claim to be able to read our sexual orientation or political opinion from biometric data, which, in some parts of the world, can have dire consequences for people.

The line between our inner self and the outer world is increasingly being blurred by technology. It’s important that we stop this invasion on our inner lives and set clear barriers where technology cannot enter.

As regulators look to address all aspects of tech regulation, from content moderation, AI bias and oversight, data collection and so on, we need to focus on the human, not the machine.

So, where do we begin?

As I said at the beginning of this video, our freedom of thought — in the forum internum, as it’s called — is already protected absolutely in international human rights law at the United Nations level.

New rights aren’t needed to meet the modern challenges. Sadly, however, these rights have been largely neglected, especially in relation to technology.

At the United Nations, a special envoy could be appointed to change the strategic focus from the technology to the protection of our inner freedoms — providing a holistic response to the challenges we face.

Or a new convention clarifying the practical protections needed to guarantee freedom of thought would be a useful tool for nations at a domestic legal level.

Technology will shape our human future. We are at a crossroads, where we need to decide how to ensure that humanity is at the heart of that future.