[Air-L] COVID-19 Seminar #4: Dr Monique Mann, Deakin University

[Thao Phan]

*COVID-19 Seminar #4: Dr Monique Mann, Deakin University*
https://moniquemann-seminar.eventbrite.com.au/

Please join us for the first seminar in the COVID-19 seminar series,
co-hosted by the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation
(ADI) <https://www.deakin.edu.au/adi> and the Science and Society Network
(SSN) <https://scienceandsocietynetwork.deakin.edu.au/>.

*Date/time:*
Tuesday 19th May, 10am - 11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time, GMT+10)

*Title:*
COVID-Up: Trust and Transparency in Contact Tracing Applications?

*Abstract:*
On Sunday the 26th of April 2020, the Australian Government released a
contact tracing application “COVIDSafe” to assist with the response to the
global pandemic. The app was marketed as a way to speed up the processes of
contacting people exposed to the coronavirus to “support and protect you.”
The Australian Government is not alone in seeking such technological
“solutions” to the global pandemic, and this represents but one significant
surveillance development from the COVID pandemic. A series of privacy and
civil liberties concerns quickly emerged, including: its intersection with
Australia’s anti-encryption laws, the use of Amazon AWS and potential for
extraterritorial data access via the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data
(CLOUD) Act, the app becoming mandatory, or the data being used for
“national security” purposes. An open letter signed by circa 80 technical
and academic experts called for the source code and design specifications
to be released to enable greater transparency and trust, sentiments shared
by academics quick to publish on the topic (see Greenleaf & Kemp, 2020).
However, despite initial assurances to release the source code and design
specifications of the “Covid Safe” app, this has not occurred.

This talk takes these developments and expands critique on the transparency
ideal which has been termed a “fallacy” (Edwards & Veale, 2017), and only
meaningful if there is a critical audience to be transparent to (Kemper &
Kolkman, 2019). Transparency does not constitute accountability in and of
itself (Vedder & Naudts, 2017). A separate but related critique inspired by
science, technology and society (STS) studies situates algorithms and
applications in context (see Ananny, 2016; Crawford, 2016). Indeed, it has
been argued that a focus on transparency reinforces a form of
techno-determinist “fetishism” that “manifests in the pleasurable pursuit
of opening the black box, discovering the code hidden inside, exploring its
beauty and flaws, and explicating its intricacies” (Monahan, 2018, p. 2).
In turn, this eschews understanding of algorithms and applications as
embedded within institutions that have their own politics and power plays
too. Related arguments have been presented by Ananny and Crawford (2018)
who advance ten failings of transparency including (but not limited to) its
disconnection from power and advancing neoliberal modes of agency. In
connecting these developments with the critical literature on transparency,
this talk advocates for a need to consider broader contexts of surveillance
and to “decenter technology” (Peña Gangadharan, & Niklas, 2019) both in
terms of techno-solutionist responses to the COVID pandemic, and our
critique of them.

References

Ananny, M. (2016). Towards an ethics of algorithms: Convening, observation,
probability and timeliness. Science, Technology and Human Values, 41(1),
93-117.

Ananny, M. & Crawford, K. (2018). Seeing without knowing: Limitations of
the transparency ideal and its application to algorithmic accountability.
New Media and Society, 20(3), 973-989.

Crawford, K. (2016). Can an algorithm be agonistic? Ten scenes from life in
calculated publics. Science, Technology and Human Values, 41(1), 77-92.

Greenleaf, G., & Kemp, K. (2020). Austrlia’s ‘COVIDSafe App’: An experiment
in surveillance, trust and law. Work-in-Progress Draft 30 April 2020.
Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3589317

Kemper, J. & Kolkman, D. (2019). Transparent to whom? No algorithmic
accountability without a critical audience. Information Communication and
Society, 22(14), 2081-2096.

Monahan, T. (2018). Editorial: Algorithmic Fetishism. Surveillance and
Society, 16(1), 1-5.

Peña Gangadharan, S., & Niklas, J. (2019). Decentering Technology in
Discourse in Discrimination. Information, Communication and Society, 22(7),
882-899.

Vedder, A., & Naudts, L. (2017). Accountability for the use of algorithms
in a big data environment. International Review of Law, Computers &
Technology, 31(2), 206–224.

*About the speaker:*

Dr Monique Mann is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and member of the
Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin
University. Mann's research expertise concerns three main interrelated
lines of inquiry: (1) new technology for policing and surveillance, (2)
human rights and social justice, and (3) governance and regulation. Mann
has contributed to advancing Australia’s national research agenda in these
areas through her activities not only as an academic and author, but also
as an advocate, media commentator, and policy advisor. She is author of
‘Politicising and Policing Organised Crime‘ (Routledge, 2020), ‘Biometrics,
Crime and Security‘ (Routledge, 2018), and editor of ‘Good Data‘ (Institute
of Network Cultures, 2019).



*Watch the seminar:*
Seminar will be available to stream on YouTube live. Access using the live
link: https://youtu.be/QFWCQhtO2Is <https://youtu.be/QFWCQhtO2Is>

Date/time: Tuesday 19th May, 10am - 11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard
Time, GMT+10)

To send questions/participate in the YouTube Live chat, you'll need to sign-in
using a YouTube account
<https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-comment-on-youtube?r=AU&IR=T>.

If you have any questions, please send to ssn-info at deakin.edu.au
<ssn-info at deakin.edu.au>

The talk will also be recorded and available on the SSN Youtube Channel
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVYFQV_UFX9CLreqpNzanVA>.

Did you miss our last seminar? Watch it here!
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtH1AbnJ7AFApbhh29fL5kqjNFdD_0eID>