Podcast Club ONLINE: How Your Data Will Be Used Against You
Details
This week's podcast is Sean Carroll's Mindscape, with guest Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School and a national expert on predictive policing, facial recognition, video analytics, big data surveillance, the Internet of Things, juries, and the Fourth Amendment. Ferguson is the author of four books. His most recent book, published this year, is Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance.
Everyday, many millions of us in the United States use amazing tech devices that help us throughout the day. We use navigation via our cars/phones, Alexa for managing our home environment, Ring doorbells for security, smart wearables to keep us healthier, smartphones for countless content, and many other devices -- which we've very willingly bought for ourselves and integrated into our lives. All of these modern conveniences entail the sharing of our personal data with tech companies. And, according to podcast guest Ferguson, all of that data can be accessed by the police or the government and used against you. In this week's episode, we explore the repercussions of this shared data. What exactly are we sharing? Sharing with whom? What could go wrong? Are the conveniences/positives worth the sacrifices/negatives? What does the Fourth Amendment (Search & Seizure) provide? What might happen when certain groups that you might oppose end up in power?
PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.
ALSO, it's possible that either of the below links have changed between the time of this posting and when you click on it. Please double-check that you're listening to the correct episode of Sean Carroll's Mindscape, which is entitled: Andrew Guthrie Ferguson on How Your Data Will Be Used Against You.
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/03/16/347-andrew-guthrie-ferguson-on-how-your-data-will-be-used-against-you/ (includes link to transcript)
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(1 hr, 9 min.)
What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times during the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm
Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.