In this episode, we explore the vital role public interest technologists play in shaping policy. How do technical experts influence legislation around the internet, cybersecurity, AI, and more? What challenges do they face, and how can we encourage more technologists to engage in public policy? Joining the conversation are Chinmayi Sharma, Associate Professor at Fordham Law School and CDT Non-Resident Fellow, and Nick Doty, CDT’s Senior Technologist. Tune in as we unpack the intersection of tech...
May 16, 2025•32 min
On January 27th, the Trump Administration made headlines with a controversial move to dismiss three Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent agency responsible for ensuring transparency and accountability in U.S. surveillance practices. With the attempted removal of these members, including the Chair, the board now lacks a quorum and is unable to function effectively, leaving just one member behind. As the future of the board remains uncertain...
Mar 06, 2025•18 min
In today’s episode, we dive into an often overlooked but incredibly important issue: content moderation in non-dominant languages, specifically Maghrebi Arabic dialects. Recently, CDT released a groundbreaking report titled "Moderating Maghrebi Arabic Content on Social Media," which explores the challenges, gaps, and opportunities in ensuring fair and effective moderation of Arabic content on social platforms. To unpack these insights, we’ll be joined by two leading experts in the field: Mona El...
Feb 24, 2025•23 min
In today’s episode, we tackle a fascinating question: What happens when an AI system deployed by a company decides to "resign"—stopping its recommendations or restricting access to its outputs? Can such actions help mitigate reputational or legal risks for organizations? To help us explore this, we’re joined by Dr. Umang Bhatt, Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Data Science at New York University, CDT Non-Resident Fellow, and co-author of the paper When Should Algorithms R...
Jan 13, 2025•31 min
In this episode, we explore the vital topic of bias and equity in AI systems. Joining the conversation are two esteemed guests: Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer at the Emerson Collective, and Alexandra Givens, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Tune in as we unpack the challenges and opportunities in making AI more equitable for all.In this episode, we explore the vital topic of bias and equity in AI systems. Joining the conversation are two esteemed guests: R...
Oct 22, 2024•32 min
AI chatbots have quickly taken the world by storm with more people than ever integrating them into their daily lives. Many are familiar with the big name chatbots that can write recipes as Shakespearean poems or summarize obscure topics. But one type of chatbot, AI romantic companions, are less known despite the fact that they fill an especially personal role for their users. For these users, the chatbot developers’ data privacy practices are critical, yet many lack mature privacy and security p...
Oct 07, 2024•25 min
More and more people turn to quantified health, achievement, and ability measures, such as fitness apps and economic measures of well-being every single day. As part of this trend, medicalized approaches to human health often describe people in terms of statistics and data, sometimes failing to capture more important details. In particular, the quantified approach falls short in describing the needs and rights of disabled people, as seen in lawsuits and case studies involving algorithmic decisio...
Sep 05, 2024•45 min
New internet-based technologies have boomed with unprecedented access to data and data management tools. While this has facilitated innovation, it has also left many personal users and companies alike with limited knowledge about the uses and potential harms of their data. Balancing innovation and data privacy often requires tailored approaches, which is what the National Institute of Standards and Technology, more commonly known as NIST, attempted to address with their now highly-relied upon vo...
Jul 19, 2024•28 min
It’s a modern day reality that large social media platforms deliver political information to many citizens, making these companies’ policies for removing and blocking speech critical to politics and culture. Emergencies such as the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar can be traced in part to misinformation and hate speech shared online via large social media platforms. The problem of how social media companies should create policies to govern...
Jun 25, 2024•26 min
Recently, legislative bodies across the United States have exploded as lawmakers in over 10 states introduced several closely related bills to tackle AI- systems and their impacts on various facets of society. From hiring practices to education, insurance, housing, lending, government services, and even criminal sentencing, the scope of these bills is vast and far-reaching and will likely have a rippling effect across the country. Here to talk about these systems and the decisions they are respo...
May 31, 2024•23 min
In recent years, differential privacy has emerged as a promising solution for enhancing privacy protections in data processing systems. However, beneath its seemingly robust framework lie certain assumptions that, if left unquestioned, could inadvertently undermine its efficacy in safeguarding individual privacy. Here to discuss their recent papers on differential privacy is Rachel Cummings, Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia University and CDT Non-...
Apr 04, 2024•30 min
On February 26, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, two pivotal cases that could alter the landscape of free expression on the internet. In this episode, we sat down with CDT’s Director of the Free Expression Project, Kate Ruane, and Vice President of the Center for Civil Rights and Technology, K.J. Bagchi to discuss the two cases that are challenging the constitutionality of the controversial Texas and Florida social media laws.
Mar 15, 2024•31 min
In today's episode, we’ll delve into the exciting realm of Artificial Intelligence, and its transformative impact on education. The recent strides in AI have reignited curiosity about its potential to enhance learning experiences. However, it's essential to recognize that AI encompasses a diverse array of methods, capabilities, and limitations. Join us as we navigate through the nuances often overlooked by researchers, education technology firms, and other developers in the AI landscape. Here to...
Jan 12, 2024•30 min
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 Drafts and RFCs. As we persistently uncover and confront systemic racial inequality across society, ...
Dec 05, 2023•37 min
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 called FISA 702. FISA 702 is a warrantless surveillance authority that was first established in 2008...
Nov 21, 2023•25 min
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 have shifted since this recording, the principles of protecting free expression and fostering an open...
Aug 16, 2023•34 min
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 hear from Alexandra Givens, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and Ari...
Jul 26, 2023•23 min
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, aided, or provided an abortion. Many types of data can reveal sensitive information about a person...
Jun 29, 2023•21 min
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 wife’s friends for allegedly helping her get abortion medication. Increasingly, law enforcement and c...
Jun 21, 2023•38 min
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 their practices to better protect their users’ privacy? As some states try to outlaw websites that tel...
Apr 21, 2023•1 hr
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 a conversation delving into the ways in which misinformation and disinformation can have dis...
Feb 24, 2023•54 min
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 strong motive to track and know the identities of people who seek to obtain reproductive health car...
Aug 18, 2022•20 min
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 content moderation are Gabe Nicholas, Research Fellow at CDT and author of Shedding Light on Shadowbann...
Aug 02, 2022•45 min
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 to prevent the illegal sale of sensitive information is Greg Nojeim Senior Counsel and Director of th...
Jun 09, 2022•29 min
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 Syed, CEO of The Markup and CDT Advisory Council member. More on our host, Jamal https://bit.ly/cdtjama...
Apr 28, 2022•29 min
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, BenKoning, Zabuhailo, bloomypetal, guitarguy1985, bmusic92, and offthesky of freesound.org.
Apr 12, 2022•33 min
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 recently released a set of new recommendations for conducting community engagement around the use of studen...
Feb 08, 2022•36 min
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 need in order to keep the country safe while preserving civil liberties and civil rights in the U.S. an...
Dec 15, 2021•22 min
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 Activity Monitoring Software: Research Insights and Recommendations presents survey research assessi...
Nov 02, 2021•23 min
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 understand more about the capabilities and limitations of automated content analysis are Jasmine McNea...
Sep 30, 2021•29 min
