Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #ColorOfSurveillance
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Wow. @djenne got the #ColorOfSurveillance conference of to such a powerful start. Great schedulingn by the organizers!
And @jevanhutson is doing some live-tweeting at
And @jevanhutson is doing some live-tweeting at
Also @GeorgetownCPT is live-tweeting as well. Here's their first thread, with Korica Simon's discussion of eugenics and forced sterilization....
Save the date: Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. ET. We are hosting The Color of Surveillance: Policing of Abortion and Reproduction. This is a mini, virtual edition of our usual in-person, all-day #ColorOfSurveillance conferences.
We will: hold space for reflections on and reactions to the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the implications for the future of gender equality, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and civil rights;
draw connections between mass surveillance and policing, the criminalization of abortion, and the growing power of the corporations that use our data to build and sell powerful surveillance technologies;
1/ I'm often asked for readings on the #ColorofSurveillance -- how race, religion, class, immigration, and sexuality intersect with surveillance.
Here's a public and free syllabus you can use in your classrooms, or for your own reading.
docs.google.com/document/d/1Rt…
Here's a public and free syllabus you can use in your classrooms, or for your own reading.
docs.google.com/document/d/1Rt…
2/ What will you notice?
For most module, I try to cite first-person accounts on the lived impact of surveillance. For the slavery module, for example, we open with Frederick Douglass' first autobiography.
(Also, you can't teach Foucault in 2020 and not read @wewatchwatchers.)
For most module, I try to cite first-person accounts on the lived impact of surveillance. For the slavery module, for example, we open with Frederick Douglass' first autobiography.
(Also, you can't teach Foucault in 2020 and not read @wewatchwatchers.)
3/ I also try to use poetry. Why? Mooostly because I love poetry. But also, a well-chosen poem or song or Dr. Seuss excerpt may help frame the material better than a scholar writing for an academic audience.
Hence, Claudia Rankine and @Danez_Smif opening the next module.
Hence, Claudia Rankine and @Danez_Smif opening the next module.
Reading @alvarombedoya's essay 'Privacy as Civil Right':
"If surveillance is a tool used to threaten the vulnerable, we must understand privacy not just as a civil liberty, but also a civil right: A shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive."
"If surveillance is a tool used to threaten the vulnerable, we must understand privacy not just as a civil liberty, but also a civil right: A shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive."
"No, on May 12, 1950, McCarthy was ascendant. He was growing in prominence and popularity. And other senators would not denounce him. There was “a silence of fear that almost completely paralyzed the Senate,” said one senator."
Your Labor Day reminder that the Panopticon was neither invented by Jeremy Bentham nor intended to be a prison.
Bentham's brother, Samuel, invented it as a factory where an inspector could closely watch all craftsmen.
Zoom in on the lower left! More: discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1353…
Bentham's brother, Samuel, invented it as a factory where an inspector could closely watch all craftsmen.
Zoom in on the lower left! More: discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1353…
& this is your Labor Day reminder that as we talk non-stop about consumer privacy, worker privacy laws are non-existent or in shambles even though people spend most daylight hours at work and employer surveillance is wildly invasive. From @gabriellexgem: slate.com/technology/201…
@gabriellexgem And this is the module on worker surveillance from my new survey seminar on the #ColorofSurveillance, which I’m pretty excited to teach this year. Readings from @chrisfinan, @mdbulik, @iajunwa, @anxiousannieb, Richard S. Street, poetry from Monica De la Torre and a lil Dr. Seuss.
1/ May 12, 1950: 70 years ago #onthisday, a Hispanic man stood on the Senate floor and denounced Joe McCarthy.
Many think that Joseph Welch or Margaret Smith were first to confront McCarthy in the Senate.
Dennis Chávez, the first U.S.-born Hispanic senator, came before them.
Many think that Joseph Welch or Margaret Smith were first to confront McCarthy in the Senate.
Dennis Chávez, the first U.S.-born Hispanic senator, came before them.
2/ To appreciate what Chávez did, look at Senate of 1950.
When New Mexico sent Chávez to the Senate in 1935, there were no other Hispanics. Or African Americans. Or Native Americans. Or Asian Americans.
One senator called him “the Senator from Mexico.” Seriously:
When New Mexico sent Chávez to the Senate in 1935, there were no other Hispanics. Or African Americans. Or Native Americans. Or Asian Americans.
One senator called him “the Senator from Mexico.” Seriously:
3/ Who was that, btw? That would be Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, a five foot, two inch tall unabashed racist who would, true story, refer to himself in the third person as “the Man.”
1/ A week out from #ColorOfSurveillance and my co-organizer @gabriellexgem have a few more transformational speakers to tell you about.
@gabriellexgem 2/ Surveillance of workers used to be one-off and outside-in.
Now it is constant... and workers are expected to do it to themselves.
@iajunwa will speak about her foundational article (with @katecrawford and @Lawgeek), Limitless Worker Surveillance: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Now it is constant... and workers are expected to do it to themselves.
@iajunwa will speak about her foundational article (with @katecrawford and @Lawgeek), Limitless Worker Surveillance: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
@gabriellexgem @iajunwa @katecrawford @Lawgeek 3/ Charity has long been laced with moral undertones. Here, the progenitors of modern social workers were wealthy women known as "friendly visitors" who "sought to help poor individuals through moral persuasion and personal example." (Michael Reisch @UMD) ssw.umich.edu/about/history/…
1/ One of the things we're proudest about for #ColorOfSurveillance is that we feature people personally affected by surveillance. Two years ago, Prof. Xi of Temple told this harrowing story: This year is no different.
2/ @schylardblkgrn, a D.C. public housing resident, will speak about the constant monitoring residents experience. She's a powerful advocate, having partnered with @ACLU_DC to push back when officials tried to bar her from city meetings. acludc.org/en/cases/ponde…
@schylardblkgrn @ACLU_DC 3/ @KellyMillerSaga of Kentucky will talk about the degrading lack of privacy that the unhoused experience on a daily basis. She testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (@CIDH) on this subject:
1/ People think that poor people have given up on privacy. @mary_madden explains that they actually care more than the wealthy.
...@profmgilman explains that it gets worse: privacy *law* focuses on protecting against harms experienced by the wealthy. #ColorOfSurveillance
...@profmgilman explains that it gets worse: privacy *law* focuses on protecting against harms experienced by the wealthy. #ColorOfSurveillance
@mary_madden @profmgilman 2/ Come to #ColorOfSurveillance to hear @profmgilman (and @mary_madden!) talk about what the class differential in privacy law. brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/cgi/viewconten…
1/ “After a year working on the floor, I felt like I had become a version of the robots I was working with.”
In 2018, Amazon was issued new patents to let them track their workers through wristband haptic monitors.
via @geekwire: geekwire.com/2018/amazon-wi… #colorofsurveillance
In 2018, Amazon was issued new patents to let them track their workers through wristband haptic monitors.
via @geekwire: geekwire.com/2018/amazon-wi… #colorofsurveillance
@geekwire 2/ We’re warned: Automation will decimate labor. What if we’re missing something?
@BrishenRogers argues that the threat isn't from mechanization. Rather, it is *surveillance* that will help companies ID tasks to outsource to “low-skilled” low-wage labor.
rooseveltinstitute.org/beyond-automat…
@BrishenRogers argues that the threat isn't from mechanization. Rather, it is *surveillance* that will help companies ID tasks to outsource to “low-skilled” low-wage labor.
rooseveltinstitute.org/beyond-automat…
@geekwire @BrishenRogers 3/ Things are starting to change. @marley_pulido (@CowOrker) and other labor organizers are helping workers push back. cnet.com/news/at-amazon…
1/ Look up the "Molly Maguires."
You'll see portrayals of a vicious gang of Irish coal miners that murdered mine owners in the dead of night.
How vicious?
Aaaah... pretty vicious, according to historians at the time. From F.P. Dewees (1877) #colorofsurveillance
You'll see portrayals of a vicious gang of Irish coal miners that murdered mine owners in the dead of night.
How vicious?
Aaaah... pretty vicious, according to historians at the time. From F.P. Dewees (1877) #colorofsurveillance
2/ Problem?
This xenophobic caricature ignores the brutalization of coal miners by mine owners and the state...
ignores many workers' dual role as labor leaders...
justifies their infiltration by the Pinkertons...
who laid the ground for executions of 10 of their leaders.
This xenophobic caricature ignores the brutalization of coal miners by mine owners and the state...
ignores many workers' dual role as labor leaders...
justifies their infiltration by the Pinkertons...
who laid the ground for executions of 10 of their leaders.
3/ At #ColorOfSurveillance, you'll hear from the @nytimes' @mdbulik on a updated and more complete history of "The Sons of Molly Maguire."
irishcentral.com/roots/history/…
irishcentral.com/roots/history/…
1/ The most vulnerable are in a no-win situation:
The unhoused struggle to have privacy (or control) in their lives.
Yet those who *find* shelter often live in spaces designed to maximize surveillance.
(Sound familiar?) #colorofsurveillance
The unhoused struggle to have privacy (or control) in their lives.
Yet those who *find* shelter often live in spaces designed to maximize surveillance.
(Sound familiar?) #colorofsurveillance
2/ At #ColorOfSurveillance, @GotNoPlace will explain the maze of local laws that basically criminalize not having a home.
Countless cities make it illegal to sleep, sit, "loaf," loiter, or ask people for help.
From the #HousingNOTHandcuffs report (PDF: homelesshub.ca/sites/default/…)
Countless cities make it illegal to sleep, sit, "loaf," loiter, or ask people for help.
From the #HousingNOTHandcuffs report (PDF: homelesshub.ca/sites/default/…)
@GotNoPlace 3/ Yet, as Dr. Jade Boyd of @BCCSU will tell us, those who *do* find shelter find themselves in yet another monitoring matrix of bright lights, gates, glass panels, perfect lines of sight, etc.
From "Supportive Housing and Surveillance" (2016): ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
From "Supportive Housing and Surveillance" (2016): ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
1/ For the unhoused, giving up deeply personal information is a part of daily life.
Below -- a template for the Homeless Management Information System intake form for homeless people seeking shelter. #colorofsurveillance
Below -- a template for the Homeless Management Information System intake form for homeless people seeking shelter. #colorofsurveillance
2/ Many may assume that poor and working class people don't value their privacy.
The crushing reality is that the *opposite* is true. The less money you make, the *more* you worry about what happens to your data.
@mary_madden showed this in a recent @datasociety survey:
The crushing reality is that the *opposite* is true. The less money you make, the *more* you worry about what happens to your data.
@mary_madden showed this in a recent @datasociety survey:
@mary_madden @datasociety 3/ It gets worse:
Not only do poor and low income folks care more about their privacy -- the consequences of privacy breaches often have far greater consequences than they do for the wealthy.
@mary_madden explains for the @NYTimes: nytimes.com/2019/04/25/opi…
Not only do poor and low income folks care more about their privacy -- the consequences of privacy breaches often have far greater consequences than they do for the wealthy.
@mary_madden explains for the @NYTimes: nytimes.com/2019/04/25/opi…
0/ Today, @GeorgetownCPT is opening RSVPs for #ColorofSurveillance on November 7.
My co-organizer @gabriellexgem and I will announce speakers on a rolling basis, but I thought I’d offer some reflections on the big picture themes of the conference.
My co-organizer @gabriellexgem and I will announce speakers on a rolling basis, but I thought I’d offer some reflections on the big picture themes of the conference.
@GeorgetownCPT @gabriellexgem 1/ I used to think that surveillance of poor & working people was a modern thing, not too central to the history of surveillance.
I’m not alone: As @gabriellexgem wrote @Slate, Congress holds hearings galore on consumer privacy... but not worker privacy. slate.com/technology/201…
I’m not alone: As @gabriellexgem wrote @Slate, Congress holds hearings galore on consumer privacy... but not worker privacy. slate.com/technology/201…
@GeorgetownCPT @gabriellexgem @Slate 2/ I was wrong. Take the Poor Laws of 1598 & 1601. As Steve Hindle @TheHungtington explains, they didn't just help the poor. They enforced “canons of social respectability.”
Want to track if the poor go to church? Paint a pew "For the Poore" in big red letters. See who shows.
Want to track if the poor go to church? Paint a pew "For the Poore" in big red letters. See who shows.
🚨 Artists & designers! @GeorgetownCPT is looking to hire a designer to help make the banner image for the next #ColorofSurveillance conference, to be announced late July. Details below. RT to get this to as many folks as possible!
Our last conference's design is below -- the conference focused on surveillance of American religious minorities.
To learn more about #ColorofSurveillance, read this 2016 essay: slate.com/technology/201…
To learn more about #ColorofSurveillance, read this 2016 essay: slate.com/technology/201…
Finally, I wish I could do calls with everyone, but my 9-month-old is going to have opinions about my doing that. But I'm happy to elaborate over email (not DM) -- my email is in the blurb in the first tweet.
