Roundtable Discussion: Refusal of Surveillance Tech, Part 2

Sponsored by the Berkeley Algorithmic Fairness & Opacity Working Group (AFOG).

In the second part of the two-part roundtable that builds on discussions started at the Refusal Conference last summer where we dug into the idea of rejecting or refusing technology which so often runs against the grain of the celebrated role technology has generally occupied in the West (Marx 1997), wedded closely to the notion of progress itself. The roundtable discussions will specifically focus on the recent refusals and resistance to facial recognition technologies as part of an effort to understand them, draw lessons from them, and put this moment in conversation and context. In this first panel we will explore this up swell of resistance to facial recognition to understand what is happening in the current moment.

Speakers

• Colin Bennett, Professor, Political Science, University of Victoria BC
• Simone Browne, Associate Professor, African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin; Research Director of Critical Surveillance Inquiry, Good Systems
• Sarah Igo, Andrew Jackson Chair in American History, Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, Professor of Sociology, Director, American Studies Program, Vanderbilt
• Priscilla Regan, Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University