Guest: Rebecca Williams is a Fellow with Belfer Center's Technology and Public Purpose Project where she is researching threats to civil liberties posed by "smart city" technologies. Rebecca has previously worked on data policy and management at the local, federal, and international level for the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Government Excellence, General Services Administration’s Data.gov, and the Sunlight Foundation. You can follow her work on her personal website, on her Substack, or her Twitter account.

Related Readings:

Kalia, Shahid Buttar and Amul. “LinkNYC Improves Privacy Policy, Yet Problems Remain.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 5, 2017. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/linknyc-improves-privacy-policy-yet-problems-remain. 

Descant, Skip. “Lawsuit Challenging L.A.'s Collection of Scooter Data Dismissed.” Government Technology State & Local Articles - e.Republic, March 1, 2021. https://www.govtech.com/fs/Lawsuit-Challenging-LA-s-Collection-of-Scooter-Data-Dismissed.html. 

Musulin, Kristin. “Cisco Explains Its Smart City Software Exit.” Smart Cities Dive, January 15, 2021. https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/cisco-explains-its-smart-city-software-exit/593139/. 

Sheard, Adam Schwartz and Nathan. “Why EFF Doesn't Support Bans On Private Use of Face Recognition.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 20, 2021. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/why-eff-doesnt-support-bans-private-use-face-recognition. 

Credits

Produced by Mark Lerner

Music by Zach Pfeifer

Artwork by 

Zihao Wang