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Privacy & Surveillance

Pervasive public and private surveillance made possible by new technologies challenges long-standing social norms of privacy and individual rights and civil liberties. Those using the technologies gain enormous power to make our everyday lives transparent to themselves while rendering their own practices increasingly invisible to those whose data they are appropriating. At the same time, the public has become increasingly reliant on the new information and communication tools for social participation, thereby increasing their transparency and dependency.

Blog April 16, 2021

Commercial DNA Technologies, Algorithmic Tools, & Secrecy Threaten Fairness in Trials

The increasingly rapid rate of technological innovation has disrupted many spheres of life, but few with higher stakes than forensic evidence. Yet the private sector tools that generate this evidence are far from flawless, and commercial secrecy can confound attempts by those accused of crime to challenge the case against them, leading to devastating consequences for individuals. Forensic technologies are proliferating and increasingly form the basis for critical evidence and determinations in court (in addition to their more familiar role in the criminal investigative process).