CDT Tech Talks

Back in 2018, CDT’s own, Mallory Knodel, teamed up with Niels ten Oever from the critical infrastructure lab at the University of Amsterdam to present a draft document at the internet standards governing body called the Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF. This draft outlined a proposal that urged the community to officially reject the use of discriminatory and exclusive language in Internet...

CDT’s Tech Talk is a podcast where we dish on tech and Internet policy, while also explaining what these policies mean to our daily lives. You can find Tech Talk on Spotify, SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Podcasts, as well as Stitcher and TuneIn. Recently, the US Privacy and Civil Liberties Board released a comprehensive report on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, commonly...

Note: This podcast episode was recorded BEFORE the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decisions on the crucial online free expression cases: Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh. Nevertheless, we've chosen to release this episode NOW because the conversation contains important information about the potential risks to users’ free speech that is more relevant than ever. While the legal landscape may h...

July 26 marks the thirty-third anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), perhaps the most important piece of legislation in the history of the disability rights movement. Since the passage of the ADA, disabled people have achieved significant advances in equality; but, the spread of technology brings new concerns and new questions to mind. In this episode, you’ll hea...

When the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, it enabled states to further restrict and criminalize abortion. Some states can now prosecute abortion providers, insurers, and, in some cases, even patients themselves. Some states also allow civil actions. Increasingly, law enforcement and civil litigants may turn to companies to gain access to data that could help prove that a person sought, received...

June 24, will mark the one-year anniversary of the momentous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Since then, a lot has happened - states are further restricting abortions, and many have made it plain they would prosecute providers, insurers, and even patients in some cases. Some states also allow private civil actions – which has, for example, allowed an ex-husband to sue his w...

The overturning of Roe v. Wade is a watershed moment for the privacy of people seeking reproductive care. A person’s browser history, search history, location and private messages can be used by law enforcement or private citizens to pursue people who are suspected of having or aiding an abortion. When people’s most private digital information can be used against them, can tech companies change th...

And we're back! For our first episode of 2023, we're excited to have invited Kate Starbird, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington, to join CDT's own Will Adler, Senior Technologist for the Elections & Democracy project and Aliya Bhatia, Policy Analyst for the Free Expression project to sit down together. Jamal leads us through...

We have another exciting show for you this week! The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, allowing individual states to limit or outright ban abortion. State reactions have been swift and varied, with some states outlawing abortions or significantly limiting them. Such laws will create a...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Controversy around content moderation on social media platforms is a perennial topic in the tech news cycle. Some advocates argue for greater accountability on the part of companies for content published on their platforms, while others believe that hiding any user generated material is censorship. Here to discuss one of the more opaque forms of con...

We have another exciting show for you this week! CDT recently released a report, Legal Loopholes and Data for Dollars, exploring the data broker ecosystem, which is estimated to be worth about $200 billion dollars , and examining how law enforcement- and intelligence agencies have been evading legal requirements by purchasing data from brokers. Here to talk about this report and what can be done t...

Welcome to CDT’s Tech Talk, where we dish on tech and internet policy, while also explaining what these policies mean to our daily lives. I’m Jamal Magby, and it’s time to talk tech. We have another exciting show for you this week! Here to talk about The Markup and how they use investigative journalism to illustrate how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society is Nabiha Sye...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Here to talk about the importance of cybersecurity for K-12 schools is Doug Casey, Executive Director for the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology and Cody Venzke, Senior Counsel for CDT’s Equity in Civic Technology Project. More on our host, Jamal https://bit.ly/cdtjamal Attribution: sounds used from Psykophobia, Taira Komori, BenKonin...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Data-sharing practices between K-12 education agencies and adjacent public sectors, such as social services, are becoming increasingly prevalent. To minimize risk, agencies participating in data-sharing initiatives must take steps to ensure the benefits are available to all and that no group of students experiences disproportionate harm. CDT recentl...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Twenty years after the passage of the #PatriotAct, CDT took some time to dig deep and ask a few fundamental questions: What were the key civil liberty concerns back in the fall of 2001 and how has government surveillance activities changed over the last two decades? With the benefit of 20 years of experience, what authorities does the government nee...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Last month, CDT released two complementary reports, the first report, Online and Observed: Student Privacy Implications of School-Issued Devices and Student Activity Monitoring Software, an interview-based study, examining local education agencies use of, and motivations for using monitoring software on school-issued devices and, the second Student...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Earlier this year, CDT released a new report, Do You See What I See? The Capabilities and Limitations of Automated Multimedia Content Analysis. This report explores a variety of machine learning techniques for analyzing images, video, and audio media, and explains what automated tools can—and can not—tell us about digital content. Here to help us un...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Apple announced that it is planning to make several changes to its messaging and photo services in the United States aimed to prevent the abuse of children. Unfortunately, although well intentioned, these changes may threaten the security and privacy of its users and ultimately imperil secure messaging around the world. Here to explain what these ch...

We have another exciting show for you this week! In February, CDT released a report identifying research gaps in our understanding of the link between race and gender in disinformation campaigns. The report, Facts and their Discontents: A Research Agenda for Disinformation, Race, and Gender, identifies key research questions about how race and gender are used in disinformation efforts. The report...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Earlier this month, the Facebook Oversight Board affirmed Facebook’s January 7, 2021 decision to restrict the ability of then-President Donald Trump to post content on his Facebook and Instagram accounts. The Board’s decision raised a number of important questions, but left the big one unanswered. Will former President Trump be allowed back on these...

We have another exciting show for you this week! As part of the CDT Equity in Civic Technology Project's ongoing “Tech Tales series,” we are featuring perspectives from across the education system and sharing their experiences navigating the issues of privacy protection, responsible technology use, and digital equity in their daily lives as parents, school administrators, and education leaders. Ou...

We have another exciting show for you this week! As part of the CDT Equity in Civic Technology Project's ongoing “Tech Tales series,” we are featuring perspectives from across the education system and sharing their experiences navigating the issues of privacy protection, responsible technology use, and digital equity in their daily lives as parents, school administrators, and education leaders. Ou...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Last month, the Center for Democracy & Technology in partnership with the KAS Foundation, issued a report examining cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system. The report, an Agenda for U.S. Election Cybersecurity, looks beyond the scope of the recently updated federal voting machine guidelines and examines vulnerabilities in election...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Earlier this week, The Center for Democracy and Technology launched its new Equity in Civic Technology Project. This new program focuses on advocating for equitable use of data and technology in government institutions. Today we’re talking with Elizabeth Laird, Director of CDT's Equity in Civic Technology project, to discuss CDT’s latest program and...

We have another exciting show for you this week! Last month, the European Commission published its long-awaited Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA report involves a review of the the 20-year-old e-Commerce Directive and seeks to answer questions regarding how society should deal with the contemporary challenges linked to digital services in the EU. Today we will be joined by one of CDT's newest f...