The powerful have long agreed: Poor and working people must be watched.

With the proliferation of digital monitoring and algorithmic management of gig economy and blue collar workers, it might seem like the expansion of workplace surveillance is a new trend. In reality, it is a centuries-old phenomenon that has shaped core aspects of modern privacy debates. From English Poor Laws, to the monitoring of 19th century coal miners and 20th century farmworker advocates, to contemporary efforts to track workers in the digital economy, this conference will follow the surveillance of poor and working people and those who advocate for them.

How has the myth of the untrustworthy pauper or worker transformed over time? What role has race and ethnicity played in justifying surveillance? Has this surveillance proven effective or not? How has technology normalized and propagated this surveillance? Finally, how are local communities, advocates, and artists responding to these challenges?

The Color of Surveillance addresses these questions and more, elevating the voices of working people, labor advocates, artists, and historians. The conference will take place on Thursday, November 7 in Hart Auditorium at Georgetown University Law Center, and is presented in partnership with Free Press and MediaJustice, with support from The Center on Poverty and Inequality Economic Security and Opportunity Initiative, the Workers’ Rights Institute, and The Institute for Technology Law and Policy.

Click here for a reading list featuring the speakers and subject matter of the conference.

Watch videos from the conference here.

Schedule:

9 – 9:20 AM: Introduction to The Color of Surveillance: Monitoring of Poor and Working People

Alvaro Bedoya, Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law
Gabrielle Rejouis, Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law

9:20 – 9:35: “Friendly Visitors”

Michael Reisch, University of Maryland

9:35 – 9:50: Transaction Denied

Xena Ni, Independent Artist

9:50 – 10:05: Poor People and Privacy

Mary Madden, Data & Society Research Institute

10:05 – 10:40: Unhoused, Watched

Tristia Bauman, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
Kelly Miller
Indi Dutta-Gupta (moderator), Center on Poverty & Inequality at Georgetown Law

10:40 – 11: Break

11 – 11:15: Housed, Watched

Schyla Pondexter-Moore

11:15 – 11:30: The Class Differential in Privacy Law

Michele Gilman, University of Baltimore School of Law, Data & Society

11:30 – 11:45: The Digital Poor House

Virginia Eubanks

11:45 – 12 PM: Reflections from the MediaJustice Network Delegation

Laila Nur, Coworker.org
Gabriela Sandoval, TURN

12 – 12:50: Lunch 

12:50 – 1: Interlude: What is Money?

Circle Time: Episode 1 Babak Radboy, What is Money? 2018 By DIS

1 – 1:05: Welcome Back

Sandra Fulton, Free Press Action Fund

1:05 – 1:20: The Eyes of King Coal

Mark Bulik, The New York Times

1:20 – 2:00: Surveillance in the Fields

Victor Díaz, Migrant Justice / Justicia Migrante
Will Lambek, Migrant Justice / Justicia Migrante
Chris Ramsaroop, Justice for Migrant Workers
Allison McDonald (moderator), Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law

2:00 – 2:35: Surveillance of Truckers

Anne Balay, Independent Scholar
Karen Levy, Cornell University
Jameson Spivack (moderator), Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law

2:35 – 2:55: Break

2:55 – 3:10: (In Range) (Out of Range) (Connecting)

Rodrigo Toscano, Labor Institute

3:10 – 3:45: Beyond Automation

Marley Pulido, Coworker.org
Brishen Rogers, Temple Law, Georgetown Law (Visiting Fall 2019)
Mark Gaston Pearce (moderator), Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown Law

3:45 – 4:00: Surveillance Ain’t Safety

Tawana Petty, Detroit Community Technology Project

4:00 – 4:40: From Decarceration to E-Carceration

Chaz Arnett, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Myaisha Hayes, MediaJustice
Topeka K. Sam, The Ladies of Hope Ministries
Alexandra Givens (moderator), Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law

4:40 – 4:55: Consumer Privacy, Worker Privacy

Gabrielle Rejouis, Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law

4:55 – 5:00: Closing Remarks

Alvaro Bedoya, Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law

Reception to follow on the 12th floor of Gewirz Student Center

Speaker List:

• Professor Chaz Arnett, author of From Decarceration to E-Carceration. 
• Anne Balay, an independent scholar, trucker, and author of Semi Queer: Inside the World of Gay, Trans, and Black Truck Drivers. 
• Tristia Bauman of the National Center on Homelessness & Poverty, author of No Safe Place: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities.
• Professor Alvaro Bedoya of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, conference co-organizer and author of the 2016 essay “The Color of Surveillance.”
• Mark Bulik of The New York Times, author of The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America’s First Labor War.
• Victor Diaz of Migrant Justice, a farmworker and plaintiff in a lawsuit contesting ICE surveillance. 
• Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Center on Poverty & Inequality at Georgetown Law, co-author of Unworkable & Unwise: Conditioning Access to Programs that Ensure a Basic Foundation for Families on Work Requirements.
• Professor Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor.
• Sandra Fulton of Free Press Action Fund, a leading advocate at the intersection of privacy, surveillance, and civil rights.  
• Professor Michele Gilman of the University of Baltimore School of Law, author of The Class Differential in Privacy Law.
• Professor Alexandra Givens of the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law, leader of the law school’s public interest technology initiatives.
• Myaisha Hayes of MediaJustice, a community organizer focused on the intersection between criminal justice and technology. 
• Will Lambek, organizer with Migrant Justice, participating as an interpreter for Victor Diaz.
• Professor Karen Levy of Cornell University, author of Data Driven: Truckers and the New Workplace Surveillance.
• Mary Madden of the Data & Society Research Institute, author of Privacy, Security, and Digital Inequality.
• Allison McDonald of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law author of Keeping a Low Profile?: Technology, Risk and Privacy among Undocumented Immigrants.
• Kelly Miller, a whistleblower and advocate who testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the lack of privacy experienced by the unhoused.
• Xena Ni, an independent artist who co-created the Transaction Denied installation on the aftermath of a D.C. food stamp system glitch. 
• Laila Nur of Coworker.org, a campaign strategist who helps workers across industries make meaningful changes in the workplace.
• Mark Gaston Pearce of the Workers’ Rights Institute at Georgetown Law, former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
• Tawana Petty of the Detroit Community Technology Project, a social justice organizer, poet and co-author of Our Data Bodies: Reclaiming Our Data.
• Schyla Pondexter-Moore, a community housing activist who successfully fought a D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA) barring notice.
• Marley Pulido of Coworker.org, an organizer of tech workers at the intersection of socially responsible tech and worker’s rights.
• Chris Ramsaroop of Justice for Migrant Workers and the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a farmworker advocate and critic of the pervasive surveillance of agricultural workers in Canada.
• Professor Michael Reisch of the University of Maryland, author of Social Policy and Social Justice: Meeting the Challenges of a Diverse Society.
• Gabrielle Rejouis of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, conference co-organizer and author of the essay “Why Is It OK for Employers to Constantly Surveil Workers?”
• Professor Brishen Rogers of Temple University Beasley School of Law, author of Beyond Automation: The Law & Political Economy of Workplace Technological Change.
• Topeka K. Sam, founder of the Ladies of Hope Ministries, whose mission is to help disenfranchised and marginalized women and girls transition back into society.
• Gabriela Sandoval of The Utility Reform Network, a researcher who studies where and why utility shut-offs occur, how they impact health, and how to stop them.
• Jameson Spivack of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, a Policy Associate who focuses on law enforcement’s use of face recognition technology.
• Rodrigo Toscano of the Labor Institute, a poet, labor organizer, and author of In Range.