Technology Pill Podcast

This week we discuss our experience of Covid so far, where we've been, where we are, and where we're going.

This week we talk to Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights & Counter-Terrorism, Nina Dewi Toft Djanegara about biometrics in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Keren Weitzberg about uses in Somalia and Palestine.

This week we’re passing the podcast over to Edward Snowden. We found out this week that the judgement in our case at the European Court of Human Rights - challenging the UK’s mass surveillance programme of bulk interception, and the UK’s access to information gathered via bulk surveillance by the USA - is coming very soon, on the 25 May.

On Tuesday, we said goodbye to Yahoo Answers in the appropriate spirit - by answering questions from the Computers and Internet section of Yahoo.

This week we talk about the different kinds of facial recognition and which you might see where. We also chat about the Facebook leak of 553million records.

This week we bring you an episode from last year in which we talked to PI's Tech Co-ordination Groups to bring you tips and tricks about how to start cleaning up and securing your phone or computer.

Please note - WhatsApp does now offer disappearing messages!

This week we're looking at the ways in which the UK Department of Work and Pensions surveil benefit recipients.

This week we're joined by Dr Courtney Thompson to discuss the history of phrenology and physiognomy and their relationship to modern technologies and culture. 

We hear that we're paranoid a lot - but what is paranoia? What does it mean to be paranoid? And is it all bad? We spoke to Dr David Crepaz-Keay from the Mental Health Foundation to find out. 

General warrants have been used to authorise wide-ranging property interference and certain forms of computer hacking of large numbers of devices - such as “all mobile phones used by a member of a criminal gang”, without specifying the names or locations of the members.

But no longer - the UK High Court has held that the security and intelligence services cannot rely on these warrants, referring back to cases from the 18th century. 

We've recently released a report looking at the impact of ID systems on transgender people in Argentina, France and the Philippines.

To celebrate we're re-releasing this podcast from our archive. It was recorded in 2018 when Eva met two transgender right activists - Naomi Fontanos and AR Arcon and discussed what the right to privacy means to them and their fight against the government's plan to deploy an ID card system.

A year ago on Monday the New York Times published an article, by a fantastic tech journalist called Kashmir Hill, about a facial recognition company called Clearview AI called 'The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It' . 

This episode we talk to a range of experts and journalist about who are Clearview? What are they doing? Why is their business model so problematic? And is the problem Clearview specific? Or is systemic?

We give you the run down on the things we expect and are excited for and sometimes apprehensive of in 2021 and give you the lowdown on what's written in your stars for the coming year.

PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project speaks with Nerima Were, who is the Program Manager on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights from  KELIN. The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS  (KELIN) focuses on creating country-based networks that intersect law, ethics, human rights, and HIV.

This week we talk to Edin, PI's Advocacy Director, about documents obtained by he spent a year working on obtaining, that detail how EU agencies ‘outsource’ border controls to neighbouring countries.

PI's Reproductive Rights and Privacy Project speaks with Denisse Albornoz from Hiperderecho in Peru, which is Peruvian non-profit civil  association dedicated to research, facilitating public understanding and  promoting respect for rights and freedoms in digital environments.