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Brief Introduction
Date of recording – June 10th, 2015Hosts Tobias Macey and Chris PattiFollow us on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneInGive us feedback! (iTunes, Twitter, email, Disqus comments)You can donate (if you want)!Overview – Interview with Eric SchlesInterview with Eric Schles
IntroductionsHow did you get introduced to Python?What inspired you to take up the fight against slavery? Is there personal story behind this choice?Some of your work touches on the “Deep Web”. Can you provide listeners with some context around what that term means and role it plays in what you do?Tor .onion sites (Hidden Services) are examplesAnonymous Web ExperienceAnonymity allows for illegal, immoral things like buying selling peopleConceptually very important ideaBruce Schneier – Web technologies need to be more privacy awareLike a really scary version of “The Internet of the Old Days”Photos of young, exploited men and womenPedophiles are building communities, having parties through these hidden servicesEric feels that Tor is an extremeFeels there had to be a way to protect the rights of legitimate while protecting against pedophilesMaybe a voting system?The Tor project feels that any compromise lessens the that’s so important for people in embattled or countries (Worded that poorly -Chris)No metrics on the amount of pedophilia that actually happens Tor – probably a lotSexually abused victims of trafficking grow up damanged unable to do anything elseConsumers of this type of porn were often themselves victims sexual abuseStructural dissonance which exists to create this problem society needs to be addressedGoogle puts the number to the anti-trafficking hotline at top of any trafficking search resultsDarren (Derek?) Hayes – redirect to trafficking resources when viewing advertisements for victims traffickingWhy did you choose Python as opposed to any other tool for your search engine? Needed solutions quickly with the ability to evolve as neededAble to rapidly develop and incorporate new features rapidlyEasy to scale as neededFlask is easier to prototype and iterate withPython data science tools make the analysis easyAble to finish a 2 year C++ project in 3 weeks using PythonDoing data science in Ruby is challengingPandas Dataframe galvanized the creation of a lot of other useful toolsVincent – write Python which compiles to D3Can you provide a high level description of the technical details the search engine that you created, and what it’s like to with Tor through Python? Directed search engine“It would be like if you went to Google but everything watched was Porn which you were uncomfortabl seeing and you sad”Get most case information through regular old detective workPerson arrested / in holding yields phone number, other attributes that can feed the search engineGoogle can’t scrape the deep webMemex tool indexes the deep web – Eric’s search engine uses thatEric does design work for the Memex projectDeveloped by the amazing Chris WhiteEric’s search engine uses the Tor driver in Selenium to .onion sitesWhat are some of the technical and legal challenges that you experienced in the course of your work? Most of the technical challenges are around automated processingLegal structure provides some limits on what can be worked onDoes your search engine try to infer who might be engaged in work voluntarily as opposed to those being forced into it their will? No, because they get all their case referrals from detective workYou have to have been hospitalized or in some other way come the attention of the authorities for being deprived of rightsTrafficking looks very different in different culturesGlobal similaritiesAfraid to say why if hurtForced into having sex against your willClear patterns of indicationUrban versus Suburban versus RuralFracking townsDemographics are very different – mostly men very women, LOTS of ads for sex workersOnly helping people that want to be helpedWhat was the most surprising fact you uncovered as part of research? Imagery of exploited children is so depressing and sadWithout revealing anything you shouldn’t, are you aware of being set free as a result of your work? “Not my work, our work”Not an individual effortlawyers, analysts, larger DAs officeGiven the complicated socio-economic aspects of human and prosecution of those who are responsible, can you discuss of the moral and ethical considerations that you have confronted with while building these tools? Privacy is the biggest concernOpen source book to teach colleagues at the DA’s office how program to in PythonSometimes Eric works at Civic HallAre there any projects out there that you consider similar to you are working on? Thorn’s Spotlight toolMemex ProjectPolaris ProjectDatakind Anti Traffickingdosomething.org – more broadly focused – help center for teensRescueForensics – stage startupWhat would it take for other municipalities and law agencies to get started with using your tools? Go to https://github.com/EricSchles?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rssAlert System and investa_gatorContact Eric at [email protected] to collaborateHow can our listeners get involved and help you with this Chris Tweet at @EricSchles or E-mail EricVolunteer for any of the non profit anti-trafficking groupsMessage to the community: There is a world of good waiting to happen
Picks
Tobias@accidental_aRttldrlegal.comRishlooNeil Gaiman’s Sandman OvertureAlchemist Brewing’s Heady TopperHen of the WoodJames Powell’s BlogJulia NunesXKCDExplain XKCDKeep in Touch
Twitter: @EricSchlesEric’s About.me pageMore From Eric
He presented at PyGotham 2014He also talked at the Open Data Science Conference 2015 BostonThe intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
