Listening to Liz debate Rick Ledgett* on ”tradeoffs” between safety and surveillance. It’s me and lots of American students 😅
Who decides what crimes justify what type of surveillance? Great intro by Liz, going into abuses by NYPD.
*He investigated @Snowden x.com/lizjosullivan/…
@Snowden Rick emphasising that private sector and public sector surveillance are very different. Private sector incentive is driven by shareholder interests. There are many entities with oversight in public sector… which is how they ensure they do the right things.
@Snowden Question from audience about the lack of knowledge/understanding when it comes to elected officials.
Also the ”magic box” problem where there is no common ground around how we talk about these issues.
@Snowden Rick Ledgett agrees about lack of understanding. Gives story about a closed session that was derailed because people needed an explanation of how antivirus software works. (”Wait it reads my e-mail?!”)
@Snowden Liz complementing with an example of the bizarre situation where people argue against the fact of AI being biased (”It’s a computer, how can it be biased?”). She says this understanding is getting a bit better.
@Snowden Liz with an important point on police having frictionless access to the tools. They can sign up to Clearview AI with a private e-mail address and there is zero oversight. And no training/education.
buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanma…
@Snowden Rick making a point about EULAs (End-User License Agreements). We comply with Chinese law can mean ”the Chinese government wants us to spy on you so we will”.
@Snowden I feel there is not a whole lot of ”debate” happening here. Seems Rick Ledgett is largely in agreement with all the problems and harms Liz highlights.
@Snowden Liz now explaining how the data collected by big platforms is shared with law enforcement and leads to false positives in criminal cases.
And further, the danger of data scraping by third parties as a lot of data is available.
@Snowden Liz on privacy and security theatre.
When apps marketed as privacy preserving actually (accidentally) endanger even more because of the data they necessarily collect.
Liz: ”I identify as a tech bro”😅When making the point that she likes technology, uses a lot of the tech and sees many benefits.
Feels like a defense I identify with and point I often have to make as well (when flatteringly called out as luddite).
Audience question on deepfake, something that keeps them up at night.
Liz in agreement with the problem and emphasising that many deepfakes do not involve AI (Nancy Pelosi video example).
cbsnews.com/news/doctored-…
Everything got a bit more technical over the last 10 minutes, with regards to NSA employees and US governance. Interesting about the obvious acceptance of surveillance as an effect of 911. Everybody of course should be aware of the Patriot Act. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_A…
Anyway, all of those stories very interesting for me to listen to as a foreign national ;)
So if you don’t already, follow Liz @lizjosullivan. She is doing such a great job of highlighting digital harms and keeping the conversation real and impactful.
Repeal the Patriot Act. 😊