neural privacy

The right to keep the activity of your brain and nervous system, and anything that can be read from it, private, and to decide who may collect, use or share it.

In the United States, Colorado became the first state to protect neural data by law in 2024, followed by California the same year and by Montana and Connecticut in 2025; each treats neural data as sensitive and gives people control over how companies handle it. Chile was the first country to protect mental integrity and brain activity in its constitution, in 2021, and in 2023 its Supreme Court ordered a company to delete a user's brain data. In November 2025, UNESCO's member states adopted the first global standard on the ethics of neurotechnology, which treats neural data as uniquely sensitive.

These laws cover companies and data. None yet addresses communication directed at a person's mind without their consent.

Related terms: Colorado Privacy Act, cognitive liberty, neuroethics, neurotechnology

Sources: Your brain, their rules: the growing patchwork of neural data regulation — Cooley (2026) · UNESCO adopts first global framework on neurotechnology ethics — UNESCO UK