Educational

Examples, Explainer, Educational Case Study, Course, Guide

Explainer

Targeted advertising is becoming ever more pervasive.  We examine changes to TV advertising, from broadcast, to video on demand, to streaming and smart TVs - how our data may be exploited, including for political gain.

21 Nov 2019
Recent study shows that Americans are wary of data from smart speakers being used in criminal investigations, the Pew Research Center reported. A recent study showed that 49% of Americans answered that it is unacceptable for smart speakers companies to share audio recordings of their customers with
Video

How an anti-abortion organisation uses data and tech.

Long Read

The EU gives millions to surveillance companies, universities, and government agencies to develop cutting-edge surveillance technologies.

01 Nov 2019
A woman was killed by a spear to the chest at her home in Hallandale Beache, Florida, north of Miami, in July. Witness "Alexa" has been called yet another time to give evidence and solve the mystery. The police is hoping that the smart assistance Amazon Echo, known as Alexa, was accidentally
01 Oct 2019
Rewire.News has reported that Google apparently remains unwilling to differentiate its Maps search results between clinics in the US that offer abortion care and faith-based organisations that do not provide abortion care. Rewire.News reports that, in contrast Yelp "made a concerted effort" to
Explainer
Abstract Over the past few years, smart phones have become incredibly inexpensive, connecting millions of people to the internet for the first time. While growing connectivity is undeniably positive, some device vendors have recently come under scrutiny for harvesting user data and invasive private
A new investigative report from Sharona Coutts at Rewire exposed how anti-choice groups, including at least one adoption agency, were resorting to using a technology called "geofencing" to find and then target individuals they believe are considering abortion, with targeted ads. Two groups, a
16 Sep 2019
Ahead of the Irish referendum to amend the Constitutions of Ireland to allow the parliament to legislative for abortion which took place in May 2018, Google decided to stop all advertising relating to the referendum on all of its advertising platforms, including AdWords and YouTube. This followed
16 Sep 2019
Bethany Christian Services, an international pregnancy support and adoption agency, is launching a programme with Copley Advertising to send targeted ads to individuals visiting Planned Parenthood clinics, abortion clinics, methadone clinics and high-risk areas (AHPA). The targeting will be done
12 Sep 2019
Denmark released 32 prisoners as part of an ongoing review of 10,700 criminal cases, after serious questions arose regarding the reliability of geolocation data obtained from mobile phone operators. Among the various problems with the software used to convert the phone data into usable evidence, it
15 Jul 2019
US campaigners supported by the Catholic church are promoting the app Femm, which collects sensitive data about women's sexual lives and aim to scare women from using hormonal birth control, in rural Nigeria. Femm received a $100,000 from the Papal Foundation to promote their app. https://www
08 May 2018
Following pressure from civil society and pro-abortion groups, Facebook announced on May 8th 208 a ban on foreign ads related to the Irish referendum on abortion. Facebook said they were being consistent with Irish electoral law. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/facebook-bans-foreign
07 May 2018
Una Mullally writes about the online campaign led by the anti-abortion groups Protect the 8th and Undecided8 and their targeting of undecided voters in Ireland. She spoke to Facebook about their role in the spreading of those campaign and to campaigner Gavin Sheridan, who has demanded transparency
13 May 2018
In this piece Gavin Sheridan, transparency campaigner and CEO of legal intelligence company Vizlegal, argues for the need for a regulatory oversight to control the impact big tech companies and force them to be more transparent. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/13/ireland-abortion