Human rights are universal – every person on the planet is entitled to the same rights and freedoms that enable a life of dignity. In any given society, however, and especially across global society, the enjoyment and realization of human rights is not uniform. Human rights deficits are pervasive, disproportionately affecting some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations around the world. In many cases, they are also perpetuated by the systematic exploitation of people (e.g., human trafficking) or power (e.g., corruption) for private gain. How can we work towards a future in which such organized violations of human rights are no longer possible?
In Microsoft Research Special Projects (opens in new tab), we tackle societal problems through use-inspired basic research (opens in new tab) – collaborating with domain experts and frontline organizations to envision technology solutions that would fundamentally transform real-world practice for the better, yet which require fundamental research advances to achieve. In the context of Human Rights Technology, this means combining our expertise in HCI, data science, and engineering to create human-centered data technologies that are ready for immediate use in specific human rights contexts, as well as future use in other contexts affected by similar data challenges.
Our work focuses on human trafficking and corruption as urgent problem areas where new technology has the potential to make a significant impact now and into the future, given the sizeable communities and substantial relevant data that already exist. Despite this potential, however, the use of data to motivate collective action across either community remains challenging in practice. For example, victim case records contain valuable evidence on the nature of human trafficking, but privacy and safety concerns mean that datasets typically remain unshared. Similarly, open government data contains valuable evidence on how actors and entities participate in corruption, but deliberate suppression of incriminating relationships means that risks typically remain undetected.
In both cases, and for organized forms of exploitation in general, our collaborations with domain experts suggest the need for a new class of transparency-enhancing technologies designed from the ground up with human rights use cases, users, and stakeholders in mind. Our technology portfolio currently comprises four examples of such technology, designed to tackle complementary aspects of the same target problem:
- Intelligence Toolkit (opens in new tab) for generating AI intelligence reports from real-world data sources;
- Synthetic Data Showcase (opens in new tab) for safe and private sharing of sensitive case data;
- Transparency Engine (opens in new tab) for mapping of entity relationships and risks;
- ShowWhy (opens in new tab) for causal decision making and evidence-based policy.
We have also co-founded major industry and company initiatives that provide real-world context for the design of such technologies, as well as partnerships with the government and civil society organizations that enable use, feedback, and impact at scale:
- Tech Against Trafficking (opens in new tab) (TAT), an industry coalition of technology companies collaborating with global experts to help eradicate human trafficking using technology;
- Microsoft ACTS (Advanced Cloud Transparency Services), a CELA program mobilizing the power of data and technology to help governments accelerate transparency.
More information can be found using the links below or by contacting Darren Edge (opens in new tab).
Return to this project page and check for future updates via https://aka.ms/humanrightstechnology (opens in new tab).
Learn more
- Intelligence Toolkit
- Software releases
- Open source code (opens in new tab) (GitHub)
- Articles
- Software releases
- Synthetic Data Showcase
- Software releases
- Open source code (opens in new tab) (GitHub)
- Public utility web app (opens in new tab) (GitHub IO)
- PAC-Synth (opens in new tab) (SmartNoise DP synthesizer)
- Data releases
- IOM differentially-private synthetic data on victims of human trafficking (2024)
- The CTDC global synthetic dataset (opens in new tab) (current CTDC data release)
- IOM releases the Global Synthetic Dataset (opens in new tab) (IOM publication)
- IOM differentially-private synthetic data on victim-perpetrator relationships (2022)
- IOM k-anonymous synthetic data on victims of human trafficking (2021)
- IOM-Microsoft collaboration enables release of largest public dataset to bolster fight against human trafficking (opens in new tab) (IOM press release)
- Real-world evidence and the path from data to impact (MSR blog)
- Synthetic data set of human trafficking victims could allow big data work without privacy compromises (opens in new tab) (TechCrunch)
- New Microsoft analytics tools help identify and understand trends without compromising privacy (opens in new tab) (TechRepublic)
- IOM differentially-private synthetic data on victims of human trafficking (2024)
- References in international reports
- Software releases
- Transparency Engine
- Software releases
- Open source code (opens in new tab) (GitHub)
- Articles
- Revealing the hidden structure of corruption (MSR Societal Resilience)
- Microsoft ACTS and Microsoft Research (ACTS Feature)
- Shining a light on beneficial ownership (ACTS Feature)
- Can artificial intelligence stop corruption in its tracks? (opens in new tab) (World Bank blog)
- Approach (University of Bristol collaboration)
- Related projects
- Graph AI for organizational analytics (opens in new tab) (MSR Special Projects)
- Software releases
- ShowWhy
- Software releases
- Articles
- A Causal AI suite for decision-making (NeurIPS 2022 workshop)
- Real-world evidence and the path from data to impact (MSR blog)
- New Microsoft analytics tools help identify and understand trends without compromising privacy (opens in new tab) (TechRepublic)
- Microsoft is teaching computers to understand cause and effect (opens in new tab) (TechRepublic)
- Videos
- Introduction to ShowWhy, user interfaces for causal decision making (opens in new tab) (YouTube)
- Update on Microsoft causal open-source libraries (Community workshop)
- Tutorial: Translating real-world data into evidence (MSR Research Summit)
- Tech Against Trafficking
- Sites
- Tech Against Trafficking (opens in new tab) (Homepage)
- Tech Against Trafficking (opens in new tab) (BSR initiative page)
- Articles
- Case study: Tech Against Trafficking (MSR Societal Resilience)
- Videos
- Technology demo: Using technology to combat human trafficking (MSR Research Summit 2021)
- Accelerator programs
- Tech-driven insight to address labor exploitation: TAT launches third accelerator (opens in new tab) (2023 launch)
- Tech Against Trafficking Summit: How to leverage innovation to tackle modern slavery (opens in new tab) (2022 summit)
- Tech Against Trafficking concludes the second accelerator (opens in new tab) (2021-2022 showcase)
- Tech Against Trafficking launches second accelerator program (opens in new tab) (2021-2022 launch)
- Accelerating toward data insights: Tech Against Trafficking successfully concludes its pilot accelerator (opens in new tab) (2019-2020 showcase)
- Scaling impact: Tech Against Trafficking launches accelerator program (opens in new tab) (2019-2020 launch)
- Landscape mapping
- OSCE today launched ground-breaking study analyzing more than 300 anti-trafficking tech tools (opens in new tab) (OSCE press release)
- Leveraging innovation to fight trafficking in human beings: a comprehensive analysis of technology tools (opens in new tab) (OSCE report)
- Interactive map of anti-trafficking technology tools (opens in new tab) (TAT tool)
- Testimonies in US Congressional Hearings
- References in international reports
- Sites
- Microsoft ACTS
- Sites
- Microsoft ACTS (Homepage)
- Articles
- Microsoft ACTS and Microsoft Research (ACTS Feature)
- Shining a light on beneficial ownership (ACTS Feature)
- Tackling corruption with transparency and technology. Part 2: Building data tools for increased transparency (ACTS Feature)
- Tackling corruption with transparency and technology. Part 1: Making a difference with data (ACTS Feature)
- Microsoft ACTS and Open Ownership focus on global data standard to boost beneficial ownership transparency (ACTS Spotlight)
- Microsoft ACTS and Open Contracting Partnership join to increase transparency with advanced data solutions (ACTS Spotlight)
- Sites