Technologist and designer Kate Bertash talks about Flock cameras, automatic license plate readers, the ubiquity of ai-driven surveillance, databasing and storage of real-time info of people and vehicle movements in public and privacy fears being raised
We assume that the collection of our data by Big Tech companies — to scrutinize, categorize, and use for commercial and other unsanctioned purposes — is unique to our era. But scholar Anita Say Chan illustrates how the eugenics movement in the 19th and 20th centuries amassed and analyzed data in order to justify social … Continued
It was the first of its kind program of mass surveillance: the surreal, and initially-secret, deployment of an unmanned plane flying in circles over the city of Baltimore. Sociologist Benjamin Snyder discusses the Baltimore Police Department’s short-lived experiment in spying on the city’s residents. He considers how technologies like the spy plane are both embraced … Continued
We plug into the digital Wild West of surveillance capitalism and the unholy alliance between Big Tech and Big Brother. Our guide is Cindy Cohn, director of Electronic Frontier Foundation.
A large segment of Americans now find work via online labor market platforms — not just low-wage drivers for Uber, but highly educated lawyers and architects, software engineers and data scientists. Sociologist of work and technology Hatim Rahman discusses the ways that algorithms are used to control these workers, intentionally keeping them constantly off guard. … Continued
A conversation with Aster, a European anarchist involved involved in the counter-surveillance and anti-repression project known as the No Trace Project which works to share information about known methods and cases of state surveillance in order to better and expand our collective knowledge, tools and abilities at evading state crackdowns as we organize and act.
Over a decade ago — in response to grassroots organizing against mass incarceration and police violence — a bipartisan coalition took shape. It brought together billionaires, large liberal non-profits, universities, rightwing think tanks, and politicians from both parties. Its stated aim was to reform the bloated criminal justice system on humanitarian grounds. Kay Whitlock argues … Continued
In the aftermath of World War Two, as the United States consolidated its position as a global superpower, it was confronted with significant challenges from below and shifting political terrain — anti-colonial struggles around the world and civil rights struggles domestically. To handle both, the U.S state turned to the police, who were sent overseas … Continued
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We speak with author Safiya Umoja Noble about her book Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.
Most of us have a growing sense that something’s deeply wrong with the way that digital data is used to track and monitor us. But most of us don’t realize that the poorest among us are particularly vulnerable. Virginia Eubanks argues that such data is used to criminalize and turn the poor away from public … Continued
