Surveillance, Technology, and Liberty: A Webinar with ACLU of Washington

Along with Washington Indivisible Network, we were delighted to co-host a webinar with Jennifer Lee and Savannah Sly of ACLU of Washington, discussing about surveillance, technology, and liberty.

Jen’s excellent presentation highlighted that technology is not neutral. Every technology is released into a context of structural inequity — and affects different communities differently. Historical examples include the 1713 Lantern Law in New York City, the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in the 1940s, the FBI’s surveillance of civil rights leaders in the 1950s, the NYPD’s Muslim surveillance program in the 2000s, and ICE targeting immigrants for deportation. Current hot topics include surveillance of protestors, COVID-19 contact tracing, automated decision systems (ADS), and facial recognition technology.

A key point is that technology exacerbates existing biases, for example against people of color and gender non-conforming people. “The Computer Got it Wrong” How Facial Recognition Led to the False Arrest of a Black Man, Kade Crockford’s How Is Facial Recognition Racist?, Malkia Cyril’s Defending Black Lives Means Banning Facial Recognition, and Os Keyes’ A UW engineer explains how facial recognition tech erases trans people go into more detail on how this plays out in facial recognition.

But here in Washington State, and across the country, advocates and activists are pushing back! Jen highlighted the rise of a multi-sector movement, led by groups like MediaJustice, Color of Change, Mijente, and MPower Change as well as new technology activists like Tech Workers Coalition, We Won’t Build It, and Athena. In Washington State, the Tech Fairness Coalition includes researchers, activists, technologists, artists, and others leaders from groups representing historically marginalized communities including immigrants, people of color, and religious minorities.

So the second half of the session talked about the work ACLU of Washington is doing, of doing work — on quite a few fronts. As well as legislative work, fighting the Seattle Port Commission’s work with CBP using facial recognition, and getting involved in the Seattle Surveillance Ordinance tech audit, they’re are also building community capacity with projects like the Algorithmic Equity Toolkit.

The presentation wrapped up with Jon Pincus, of Indivisible Plus Washington, talking about Indivisible’s involvement in civil liberties activism — including working with the Tech Fairness Coalition and ACLU of Washington to help kill a bad privacy bill in the 2020 legislative session. We then discussed the upcoming work, including the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act and the BREATHE Act at the federal level, and starting the discussions now for the 2021 Washington state legislative session.

Getting involved with ACLU of Washington

• Find out more about the ACLU ofWashington’s work on technology and liberty
• Actions you can take today, including telling the Seattle Port Commissioners to ban facial recognition and reverse their decision to collaborate with CBP.
• Contact ACLU of Washington to get involved in civl liberties activism and the Tech Fairness Coalition.