Main Page/Crash Courses/Programs and training/Week 9

Week 9: Other topics - artificial intelligence, health privacy

• Real time lecture: December 12th, 10am - 12pm Pacific/1pm - 3pm Eastern on Zoom https://zoom.us/j/9129428892
• Recording: TBD

Overview

The rise in surveillance technologies over the past 30 years has occurred alongside the increase in mass incarceration and violent policing, especially in Black, poor, and immigrant communities. Thanks to the work of accountability movements, we've learned that police now have access to an unprecedented amount of new surveillance equipment that is often acquired and used without democratic oversight, and with little to no regulation. Police also have new relationships with corporate entities, like Amazon, in mutually beneficial relationships to acquire and deploy more of these surveillance technologies. During the 2020 uprisings for Black lives, we saw many of these capabilities used against protestors in the streets. This week, we'll discuss the landscape of police surveillance and what it means for directly impacted people in our communities. We'll also cover some more about privacy tools that we didn't get to during our privacy tools 101 week.

Readings

• make edits to this week!

Lots of readings this week -- get through whatever you can!

• ACLU guide to police surveillance technologies: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/tc2-technology101-primer-v02.pdf
• ACLU CCOPS legislation around the country: https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/community-control-over-police-surveillance?redirect=feature/community-control-over-police-surveillance
• EFF's Atlas of Surveillance (documenting police surveillance in communities) https://atlasofsurveillance.org/
• EFF's Activist Threat Model: https://ssd.eff.org/en/playlist/activist-or-protester
• High tech polie surveillance of protestors year in review 2020: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/high-tech-police-surveillance-protests-and-activism-year-review-2020
• Media Justice "Protect Black Dissent" campaign: https://mediajustice.org/campaign/stop-spying/
• How the NYPD is using post-911 tools on everyday New Yorkers https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/nyregion/nypd-9-11-police-surveillance.html

Much is made of the coming artificially intelligent future, where automation takes away menial labor and self-driving electric cars get us off the internal combustion engine. But that fantasy ignores the reality of the AI infrastructures currently being built, infrastructures that exacerbate existing social problems and create whole new concerns. Artificial intelligence is built through enormous datasets, which are often created from the wealth of information collected about us without our consent. Processing all of this data is incredibly resource-intensive. Furthermore, lots of AI is used for even greater privacy-violating purposes, like facial recognition and predictive policing. This week, we'll talk about AI in depth and efforts to oppose its worst excesses. We'll also talk about health and privacy, the connections between digital health and artificial intelligence, and patient privacy rights.

Readings

• Anatomy of an AI report and visualization of the data, labor, and ecological impacts of one Amazon Echo device from AI Now Institute: https://anatomyof.ai/
• The far-right helped create the world's most powerful facial recognition technology: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-alt-right_n_5e7d028bc5b6cb08a92a5c48
• Palantir provides Covid-19 tracking software to CDC and NHS, pitches European health agencies: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/01/palantir-coronavirus-cdc-nhs-gotham-foundry/
• Defund facial recognition: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/defund-facial-recognition/613771/
• (Optional long read) Bad predictions: how civil rights violations impact police data, predictive policing systems, and justice https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3333423
• (Video) Dr. Adrian Gropper on patient privacy issues and rights: https://vimeo.com/520441452
• Notes and social media graphics from LFP's Health Privacy and Literacy in a Pandemic World series https://healthandprivacy.com/notes/

Discussion

Link: https://libraryfreedom.chat/t/cc-2-week-9-ai-health-privacy/922

Tasks

• Lecture, readings, discussion forum, and final project work