Liberty in the Information Age
Security, privacy, commerce, and code
You Can't Escape Data Surveillance In America
The Fair Credit Reporting Act was intended to protect privacy, but its provisions have not kept pace with the radical changes wrought by the information age.
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Jim Lo Scalzo / epa / Corbis How License-Plate Readers Have Helped Police and Lenders Target the Poor
Law enforcement can access privately-collected location information about cars—and some low-income neighborhoods have faced extra scrutiny.
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Mel Langsdon / Reuters Credit Bureaus Were the NSA of the 19th Century
They were enormous, tech-savvy, and invasive in their methods—and they enlisted Abraham Lincoln into their ranks.
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Jim Vondruska / Demotix / Corbis An App That Tracks the Police to Keep Them in Check
New software will help low-income people and communities of color to record their experiences with law enforcement—in order to create a crowdsourced map of their behavior.
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David Precious / Flickr How Technology Helps Creditors Control Debtors
From software that records your every keystroke, to GPS tracking, to ignition kill switches—lenders have more power over their customers than ever.
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Mark Makela / Reuters This Very Common Cellphone Surveillance Still Doesn't Require a Warrant
And a court just ruled in favor of the government, again.
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Johannes Schmitt-Tegge / dpa / Corbis Will New York City’s Free Wi-Fi Help Police Watch You?
The city is building the biggest and fastest free network in the country—but it could put low-income users' privacy at risk.
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Kara Gordon / The Atlantic How a Cashless Society Could Embolden Big Brother
When money becomes information, it can inform on you.
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Reuters How Big Data Harms Poor Communities
Surveillance and public-benefits programs gather large amounts of information on low-income people, feeding opaque algorithms that can trap them in poverty.
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Dado Ruvic / Reuters How Surveillance Stifles Dissent on the Internet
New research shows that social-media users who said they have “nothing to hide” from the government often avoid posting controversial opinions on Facebook.
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Maurizio Pesce / Flickr Would You Let Companies Monitor You For Money?
Getting cash or discounts for your personal data could give you more control over it—but may help turn privacy into a premium feature.
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Library of Congress Technology, the Faux Equalizer
Silicon Valley’s sunny outlook on technology and opportunity ignores systematic inequalities.
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Jonathan McIntosh / Flickr Used Phones Are Full of Previous Owners’ Data
Researchers bought 20 used smartphones in four cities, and recovered thousands of photos, texts, and emails.
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Ruaridh Stewart / ZUMA Press / Corbis The Extortionist in the Fridge
Hackers are taking over devices and demanding ransoms to give them back. What happens when they get ahold of your house?
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Rick Wilking / Reuters Should Everyone Get to See Body-Camera Video?
In Washington, D.C., city officials are considering the nation’s most publicly accessible police-body-cam policy.
