Technology Pill

This week we're discussing what happens when AI is trained on a dead person's data to bring them back as a chatbot. Find out more from Gus and Caitlin, and their guest James Muldoon, Reader in Management at Essex Business School and Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, about the ethics, the grief, and the companies making it happen.

Links

- https://jamesmuldoon.org

- https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571399277-love-machines/

This week we're talking to Ben Wizner from the American Civil Liberties Union about what the ACLU have been doing in the first year of Trump's second term, what the difference is between this time and last time, and how an earth they can keep up.

Links

• ACLU report: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/aclu-vs-trump
• Kyllo case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States
• Underground Empire book: https://henryfarrell.net/underground-empire-2/
• Swift work between PI and ACLU: https://privacyinternational.org/blog/1355/pi-and-aclu-show-swift-auditor-has-extensive-ties-us-government
• Yale lectures on National Security law: https://epe.yale.edu/videos/above-law-or-beneath-it-how-national-security-law-subverts-accountability-and-weakens-0
• Asylum for White South Africans: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/us/politics/trump-refugee-admissions-white-south-africans.html
• FISA reauth: https://theintercept.com/2026/01/29/nsa-702-fisa-surveillance/

Join us as we discuss Border Externalisation - what is it, and why does it drive violence at the border? We're joined by two fantastic guests - Dan from the Border Violence Monitoring Network to discuss the EU's Border Externalisation, and Kathy from Al Otro Lado to discuss the America's.

Border Violence Monitoring Network’s work

• BVMN's website https://borderviolence.eu/
• Surveillance Tech Serbia Report: https://borderviolence.eu/reports/surveillance-technologies-at-european-borders-serbia
• Cyprus Borderscape: https://cyprusborderscape.com/
• BalkanDac: https://borderviolence.eu/reports/decoding-balkandac-navigating-the-eu-s-biometric-blueprint
• Samos CCAC : https://borderviolence.eu/reports/controlled-and-confined-unveiling-the-impact-of-technology-in-the-samos-closed-controlled-access-centre
• Use of mercenaries for pushbacks in Cyprus. https://borderviolence.eu/reports/submission-to-the-ohchr-for-the-upcoming-visit-of-the-working-group-on-the-use-of-mercenaries-to-cyprus

Al Otro Lado:

• Al Otro Lado’s Programs: https://www.alotrolado.org/our-programs
• Merch: https://www.bonfire.com/al-otro-lado/?srsltid=AfmBOoqZMoeVG0Ggysn-YhlXQ7YPehx_4tnFPY5O2K236THD3U7p7_SG

PI work

• Drivers of Surveillance: http://privacyinternational.org/challenging-drivers-surveillance
• When Spiders Share Webs: EU-Funded INTERPOL policing programme in West Africa: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5346/when-spiders-share-webs-unveiling-privacy-threats-eu-funded-interpol-policing
• Migration and borders: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/migration-and-borders

This week we're discussing the end of support (kind of) for Windows 10 - find out more from Chris and Tom about what you should worry about and what you can do now Windows 10 is officially (mostly) End of Life.

Links

- Read more about your options: https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/5686/end-line-windows-10

- Learn more about PI's position on the Cyber Resilience Act: https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/5060/our-position-eu-cyber-resilience-act-cra

This week we talk to Ilia and Serhat about the creeping militarisation of technology, and with it our societies.

Links

All of our militarisation work: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/militarisation-of-tech

What is Militarisation of Tech?: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5668/what-militarisation-tech
Key Concerns Regarding Governance in the Era of Militarisation of Tech: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5671/key-concerns-regarding-governance-era-militarisation-tech
“Killer Robots”: Read PI statement during informal consultations on autonomous weapons systems in New York: https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/5589/pi-statement-during-informal-consultations-autonomous-weapons-systems-new-york
How Data Drives the Militarisation of Tech: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5667/how-data-drives-militarisation-tech
On the Applicable Legal Frameworks and Regulatory Gaps: International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5670/applicable-legal-frameworks-and-regulatory-gaps-international-humanitarian-law-and
We have a mailing list specifically for our militarisation work that you can find here: https://action.privacyinternational.org/user/register

This week we're back to discussing stories that have been in the news over the past few months - in particular the stories that have stayed with us and kept us thinking about them.

Links

- Expansion of ICE biometrics

- ⁠Dean Cain joins ICE ⁠

- ICE access to medicaid data

- Industry Day at the US Customs and Border Protection

- Inquiry by Microsoft

- Investor concerns about Microsoft use by Israeli government

- Israeli government use of Google services

- Data sovereignty and Data Localisation across Africa and Asia

- Meta violates California's wiretap law

- PI's original app data investigation

- PI's most recent look at period apps

- Amazon Alexa ads?

- Grok advertisers

- Pew researchers study Google AI summaries

- 404 media's experience with Google AI

- Cloudflare experimenting with pay per crawl feature for AI companies

- You can donate to PI!

- Pilot programme - drones in Florida schools

- Axon's ethics board resignations over taser drones

- UK facial recogntion database searches

- ICO complaint

This week Gus and Caitlin are rewilding the Internet with Maria Farrell. What do you want using the internet or your devices to feel like? What can ecology teach us about unwinding corporate capture of the digital commons? How do we take back our home online?

Links

- Maria's original rewilding article, with Robin Berjon, in Noema: https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

- Maria's article 'This is your phone on feminism': https://conversationalist.org/2019/09/13/feminism-explains-our-toxic-relationships-with-our-smartphones/

- A talk Maria gave about rewilding: https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

- Maria's website where you can keep an eye to find out when her book is coming out! http://mariafarrell.com/

- More about PI's work on competition: https://privacyinternational.org/learn/competition-and-data

This week we're talking to Martha Dimitratou from ReproUncensored, and PI's own Sarah Simms about the international landscape for reproductive rights, and including barriers to access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion; and how big tech are collaborating with or supporting tactics to make access to healthcare harder.

Links

- Learn more about Repro uncensored: https://www.reprouncensored.org/ (incident form)

- Repro Uncensored incident report form: https://www.reprouncensored.org/report-incident

- Adriana Smith's case: https://www.jezebel.com/georgia-takes-brain-dead-woman-off-life-support-after-using-her-corpse-as-incubator

- More about Adriana's case: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5405542/a-brain-dead-womans-pregnancy-raises-questions-about-georgias-abortion-law

- UK Decriminalisation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2le12114j9o

- Privacy International's Menstruation apps research: https://privacyinternational.org/learning-resources/no-bodys-business-mine-vol-2

- Research on Bing's Typo-searching: https://www.reprouncensored.org/research/bing

- MSI on the Global impact of Roe V. Wade being overturned: https://www.msichoices.org/latest/the-global-effects-of-roe-v-wade-being-overturned/

- Report by Fòs Feminista on the Global Impact of the Dobbs Decision: https://fosfeminista.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-Global-Impact-of-the-Dobbs_Preliminary-Findings-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf

- Meta getting rid of factchecking function: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly74mpy8klo

- Amazon USA report called Obstacles to Autonomy, which includes info on advertising account restrictions: https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Obstacles-to-Autonomy-Post-Roe-Removal-of-Abortion-Information-Online.pdf

- An Independent report on state funding for 'fake' clinics: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/crisis-pregnancy-center-public-funding-abortion-b2629678.html

- Women on Web report about the Digitalization of Anti-Abortion groups: https://www.womenonweb.org/en/page/20603/breaking-down-the-myths-around-abortions-misinformation-the

- ShaketheDust map of fake clinics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10I3LLyLn73gVKKM-fsWUY9snDhp3SQG38gmtNwJ6bEA/edit?tab=t.0

- Digital defence fund digital security and abortion: https://digitaldefensefund.org/ddf-guides/abortion-privacy

- Facebook messages in Nebraska case: https://time.com/6298166/nebraska-abortion-pill-case-legal-experts/

- Nicola Packer case in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93y5gq09x7o

This week we speak to Jen Persson, Director of Defend Digital Me, about the technologies being deployed in schools in England and Wales.

Links:

• Read more from Defend Digital Me: https://defenddigitalme.org/research/
• PI's work on Securitising Education: https://privacyinternational.org/campaigns/securitising-education
• 25 Years old - The Database State report: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/database_state/
• 5 safes principles: https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/secure-lab/what-is-the-five-safes-framework/
• Genomics in Education: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/genomics-in-education
• Tips and Tricks for submitting a Data Subject Access Request: https://privacyinternational.org/explainer/3845/71-tips-how-make-most-out-your-dsar
• Request your information from the Department for Education: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/requesting-your-personal-information-from-dfe/requesting-your-personal-information-from-the-department-for-education

This week we're talking to Gus about his experience being targeted by the Russian government, how it felt at the time, and then how it felt when he found out the government may be trying to undermine the tool he uses to keep himself and his family safe.

Read more about Privacy International's challenge against the UK's secret TCN powers.