JusticeTechDL: crime, privacy & genealogy websites; courts send mixed messages of genotyping + jobs
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Course
This week we are working through the students' draft project memo for the Washington D.C. Attorney General's Office. If you haven't read it, here's the project description. (Medium)
News
I took a deep dive look into genealogy websites and how they're used in criminal investigations. (ABA) One of the databases I write about, GEDmatch, is a giant national security risk, according to new research. (UW)
Last week, I made the argument that the failure of breathalyzers to produce consistently accurate evidence is one reason we need third-party auditing of criminal justice tech. (ABA) This week, a significant investigation was published regarding the failure of the tech. (NYT)
A federal judge in Michigan wrote that probabilistic genotyping software is mostly guesswork that can't be used as evidence. (TechDirt) Meanwhile, a state court in Georgia was happy to accept the same type of evidence. (GA)
The Philadelphia District Attorney has been investing in their data game, and they've been publishing about it. Here's a look at their incident-arrest-charge funnel. (PDAO)
Two law profs propose a way forward on facial recognition that allows for limited use by police. (NYT) San Diego County has been letting federal agencies, including ICE, query its facial recognition system. (EFF) Meanwhile, in China, emotion recognition is the new craze. (FT$)
Police in Florida want information from Amazon because there was an Alexa device in a home where a stabbing took place. (WaPo) (h/t Andrew Ferguson)
Costing corrections departments a half million dollars a year, AI can now listen in on inmates' calls--it's impact on attorney-client privilege is unclear. (ABA)
An academic researcher in the UK received a grant to study the "ecosystem" and people behind legal tech. (LG) (h/t Aonghus Kelly)
A crime-fighting Facebook page led to the arrest in a cold case murder in North Carolina. (ABA)
Events
The American Society of Criminology meeting is happening in San Francisco between November 13-16. (ASC)
The Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency conference will be in Barcelona, Spain Jan. 27-30, 2020. (FAT)
LITCon, which focuses on the use of technology in law and legal education, is going down at Suffolk Law School in Boston, March 30, 2020. (Suffolk)
We Robot 2020 has a call out for proposals. It'll take place at the University of Ottawa, April 2-4, 2020. (UOttawa)
The Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown reopened its student writing competition, deadline is May 31. (GULC)
The Law and Society Association is accepting submissions for its conference May 28-31, 2020 in Denver. (LSA)
Jobs & Opportunities
ACLU national is looking for a director of product management. (ACLU)
AI Now Institute is looking for editorial and research leads. (AI Now)
Arnold Ventures has a bunch of job openings in their various criminal justice tracks. (Arnold)
Callisto, a sexual assault reporting platform, is looking to fill a number of roles. (Callisto)
The Center for Justice Research at Texas Southern University is looking for a research analyst. (TSU)
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has a senior engineer opening in their Justice and Opportunity vertical. (CZI)
The Harvard Law Library needs a web developer to work on their online legal textbook platform. (HLL)
The Lab at DC is hiring social and data scientists plus an operations analyst. (LDC)
Measures for Justice has five open positions in their research and technology sections. (MfJ)
The Philly District Attorney's Office is looking for researchers, data scientists and programmers. (PDAO)
Recidiviz, a criminal justice data platform, is looking for a product manager. (Recidiviz)
The University of Richmond School of Law has two unique positions, including a director of legal innovation. (UR)
The Stanford Center for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence wants to fill a number of director roles. (HAI)
Thorn, a platform fighting child sex trafficking, has a number of positions open for engineers, product managers and sales. (Thorn)
Uptrust, a court reminder platform, is looking for a front end engineer and tech lead manager. (Uptrust)
Upturn, a tech policy outfit in D.C., is hiring for four awesome sounding positions. (Upturn)