UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that neurotechnology is advancing so fast it could one day threaten fundamental human rights.

He said governments’ ability to access and manipulate people’s brains could lead to arbitrary detentions, changes to mental states and infringements on privacy.

The warning was reported by the New York Times’s Jonathan Moens. Neurotechnology includes devices and tools that read or interact with brain activity.

The field has grown quickly. Brain-computer interfaces, once limited to medical research, are moving toward wider use for health, productivity and even consumer products.

Guterres’s concern is about control. If brain data can be collected and altered, existing human-rights protections may not be enough.

Experts have called for new rules on ‘neurorights’, covering mental privacy and freedom of thought. Chile has already written brain rights into its constitution.

The warning echoes a growing debate among scientists and lawyers. They argue that brain data is more intimate than any other kind of personal data.

Companies are racing ahead. Startups and tech giants are building headsets and implants that read neural signals. Regulators have barely begun to respond.