Neurorights

As neurotechnology becomes able to record, and sometimes change, brain activity, ethicists and lawmakers are asking whether existing human rights are enough. Neurorights are a proposed set of protections specifically for the mind.

The five neurorights

The Neurorights Foundation, co-founded by neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, popularized five rights:

1. Mental privacy: neural data shouldn’t be collected, shared or sold without consent.
2. Personal identity: technology shouldn’t change a person’s sense of self.
3. Free will: people should keep control over their own decisions, without hidden manipulation.
4. Fair access to mental augmentation: enhancement technologies shouldn’t widen inequality.
5. Protection from algorithmic bias: decoders and neurotech software shouldn’t discriminate.

Other scholars put it differently, for example as cognitive liberty (the right to self-determination over your own mind).

From idea to law

• Chile amended its constitution in 2021 to protect mental integrity, and its Supreme Court later ordered a consumer EEG company to delete a user’s brain data.
• US states including Colorado, California, Montana and Connecticut now classify neural data as sensitive personal information.
• At the federal level, the proposed MIND Act would have the FTC study neural data protections (read our coverage).
• International bodies, including UNESCO, have developed ethical guidance for neurotechnology.

Open questions

What counts as neural data? Does it include signals from muscles or heart rate that indirectly reveal mental states? Should neural data ever be sold? Who owns a decoder trained on your brain? These debates are ongoing, and we track them in News.