Directors & Fellows blog the “law and computation” series for Platypus, the CASTAC Blog

Platypus, the Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing Blog, is featuring a seven part series on “law and computation” authored by the Directors and Fellows of the Technology, Law Society Institute. Each post features a discussion of how changes in technology are revolutionizing the study and practice of law. Read the series here.

New “Law In Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by Chris Bates

I was perplexed by the K5 by Knightscope, a “fully autonomous security data machine,” rolling through the Irvine Spectrum Shopping Center last summer. I am not cavalier, nor naive, about my rights to privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity. However, I fully expect to be captured by surveillance cameras from my arrival to departure in many private places. The market demand and adoption cycle for novel surveillance technologies has long existed with little regulations from statutory or case law; and their use continues to expand as the cost of sensors and data processing decreases.[…] Continue reading, “Regulating Physical Places with Digital Code” at the CASTAC Blog.

New “Law In Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by Dr. Mona Lynch

Back in the mid-1990s when I was a graduate student, I “interned” at a parole office as part of my methods training in field research. In my first week, another intern—an undergraduate administration of justice student from a local college—trained me in how to complete pre-release reports for those men and women coming out of prison and entering onto parole supervision. The pre-release report was largely centered on a numeric evaluation of the future parolee’s risks and needs.[…] Continue reading, “Rule of Law by Machine? Not so Fast!” at the CASTAC Blog.

New “Law In Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by Noopur Raval

Data Doppelgängers and Issues of Consent

In February 2018, journalist Kashmir Hill wrote about her collaboration with researcher Surya Mattu to make her (Hill’s) home as “smart” as possible. They wanted to see what they could learn about privacy, both from the perspective of living in such a house and from the ‘data fumes’ or ‘data exhaust’ of all these smart appliances themselves. Data fumes or exhaust refer to the traces we leave behind when we interact digitally but also, often, information that we provide to sign-up on digital platforms (gender, location, relationships etc). These traces, when aligned and collated with our daily digital behaviours on social media, e-commerce and Search platforms, are vital to the speculative and dynamic constructions of who we might be. […] Continue reading, “Data Doppelgängers and Issues of Consent” at the CASTAC Blog.

New “Law in Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by John R. Emery

Killer Robots: Algorithmic Warfare and Techno-Ethics

War is an experiment in catastrophe; yet, policymakers today believe chance can be tamed and ‘ethical war’ waged by simply increasing battlefield technology, systematically removing human error/bias. How does an increasingly artificially intelligent battlefield reshape our capacity to think ethically in warfare (Schwartz, 2016)? Traditional ethics of war bases the justness of how one fights in war on the two principles of jus in bello (justice in fighting war) ethics: discrimination and proportionality, weighted against military necessity. […] Continue reading, “Killer Robots: Algorithmic Warfare and Techno-Ethics” at the CASTAC Blog.

Call For Applications – 2018 Technology, Law & Society Summer Institute

We are pleased to host a 3-day Technology, Law & Society (TLS) Summer Institute at UC Irvine from June 22-24, 2018. The TLS Summer Institute will examine how changes in technology are revolutionizing the study and practice of law. Convened by Profs. Mona Lynch (Criminology, Law and Society) and Bill Maurer (Anthropology), the Institute will bring together junior scholars whose work addresses new relationships between technology, law and society (broadly defined) along with diverse experts from fields like sociology, criminology, anthropology, law, political science, informatics and computer science, and beyond. Read the full Call for Applications, check the Eligibility Requirements, and access the Submission Link here.

New “Law In Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by Evan Conaway

Privacy and Piracy: Investigating Unauthorized Online Gaming

When we play an online game like World of Warcraft, where are we? This is not just a metaphysical question—are we in the fantasy world of Azeroth or in front of our computers—but a legal one as well. And there are multiple answers to that legal question. We might take a look at the space of intellectual property at the level of code and creation, whether corporate or by the players. There is also the space of law within the game, of the rules and norms guiding play (De Zwart and Humphreys 2014). What I’m concerned with here, though, are the servers, located in physical places, that connect players through infrastructures of connection whose worlds are sometimes disconnected by proprietary and computational decisions of game world owners. […] Continue reading, “Privacy and Piracy: Investigating Unauthorized Online Gaming” at the CASTAC Blog.

New “Law In Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by Tania DoCarmo

The Migrant’s Right to a Digital Identity

According to the World Bank, over 1 billion people live without a formally recognized identity. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Accenture and Microsoft, and motivated by UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9, to “provide legal identity for all” by 2030, the ID2020 Alliance is a UN sponsored public-private partnership with plans to make “digital identities” more accessible for refugees, stateless and displaced populations through biometrics and blockchain technology. As an executive at Accenture explains: “Digital ID is a basic human right.” […] Continue reading, “The Migrant’s Right to a Digital Identity” at the CASTAC Blog.

Introductory “Law In Computation” Post on CASTAC Blog by Dr. Bill Maurer

From Law in Action to Law in Computation: Preparing PhD Students for Technology, Law and Society

In 2015, a robot buying illicit items off the “dark web” was confiscated by the Swiss authorities along with its haul of Ecstasy pills, a Hungarian passport, counterfeit designer clothing, and other items. Dubbed Random Darknet Shopper it was a bot programmed to shop on the dark web using Bitcoin, the pseudo-anonymous cryptocurrency that, at the time of my writing, is experiencing an enormous bubble. Previously assumed to be the domain of criminals or drug dealers, the Bitcoin bubble has made it more mainstream, even on popular television shows like The Daily Show and is being discussed at policy forums worldwide. It increased in value from just over $1000 to over $8000 between February 2017 and February 2018, with a peak at over $19,000 in mid-December 2017. While it was pretty obscure just a few months ago, you probably have a cousin or uncle currently “mining” Bitcoin or trading in similar digital tokens whether you know it or not. […] Continue reading, “From Law in Action to Law in Computation” at the CASTAC Blog.

UC Irvine Launches Technology, Law and Society Institute

Thanks to grant funding from the National Science Foundation Bill Maurer, UCI social sciences dean and anthropology and law professor and Mona Lynch, criminology, law & society professor and co-director of the Center for Law, Society & Culture, are developing the Technology, Law and Society Summer Institute where they’ll train the next generation of scholars who will tackle how changes in technology are revolutionizing the study and practice of law. Read more here.