Neurotech, Surveillance, and the Future of Sovereignty: Who Owns the Signals of the Mind?

As neurotechnology moves from research labs into wellness apps, classrooms, and war zones, our thoughts are becoming the next frontier of data extraction. But who governs the brain-machine interface when the brain itself becomes connected?

We are entering an era where neural signals can be harvested, manipulated, and commodified, not in the future, but now. Consumer brainwear is marketed as productivity or wellness tech, but often collects highly intimate data with little to no regulation. Meanwhile, militaries and corporations are exploring brain-computer interfaces for strategic advantage. This isn’t just a technological shift, it’s a civilizational pivot point. If digital rights movements don’t act now, we risk losing the opportunity to shape the governance of neurotechnology before it reshapes us.

This session explores how movements for digital rights must expand their scope, to include the right to mental privacy, cognitive autonomy, and protection from neural surveillance. Because in the struggle for a just and secure digital future, defending the mind may be the final line.

Participants can expect to gain the following by the end of the session:

• Greater regional awareness that neurotechnology is a digital rights issue.

• Collective reflection on how cognitive liberty intersects with existing movements.

• Seed ideas for policy action or narrative change around neuro-governance.

• Inspire participants to imagine safeguards; not after harm, but before it.

1. Unggul Sagena
   SAFEnet
2. Edward Tsoi
   AI Safety Asia
3. Dr. Sonny Zulhuda
   Associate Professor at International Islamic University Malaysia
4. Athena Kerin Tong
   Visiting Researcher, RCAST, University of Tokyo
5. Nawal Munir
   NetMission.Asia