Publications

The Open Internet Order Becomes Law: Why Faith Leaders are Celebrating

Author(s): 
Valarie Kaur
Publication Date: 
June 12, 2015
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

Read the full piece at The Huffington Post

Today, after more than a year of national debate, the Open Internet Order goes into effect. The Order keeps the Internet an open and democratic space free from undue corporate control. Business leaders, start-up innovators, and economists widely praise the Order as win for the economic growth.

But protecting the open Internet is not just sound policy -- it's a moral imperative. Read more about The Open Internet Order Becomes Law: Why Faith Leaders are Celebrating

Computers Are Getting Better Than Humans at Facial Recognition

Author(s): 
Norberto Andrade
Publication Date: 
July 9, 2015
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

Perceiving whether someone is sad, happy, or angry by the way he turns up his nose or knits his brow comes naturally to humans. Most of us are good at reading faces. Really good, it turns out. 

So what happens when computers catch up to us? Recent advances in facial recognition technology could give anyone sporting a future iteration of Google Glass the ability to detect inconsistencies between what someone says (in words) and what that person says (with a facial expression). Technology is surpassing our ability to discern such nuances. Read more about Computers Are Getting Better Than Humans at Facial Recognition

The Dread Pirate Roberts was as much lawmaker as lawbreaker

Author(s): 
Henry Farrell
Publication Date: 
June 1, 2015
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

Ross Ulbricht, who called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts and created the Silk Road online drugs market, has just been sentenced to life in prison. In a letter to the judge, he pleaded for clemency, claiming that “I learned from Silk Road that when you give people freedom, you don’t know what they’ll do with it.” The judge didn’t buy this claim, and retorted that “You were captain of the ship as Dread Pirate Roberts, and you made your own law.” This seems like a strange claim at first glance. Read more about The Dread Pirate Roberts was as much lawmaker as lawbreaker

A Sunset Is A Beautiful Thing

Author(s): 
Jennifer Granick
Publication Date: 
May 28, 2015
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

In the wake of a recent appellate court’s decision that the NSA’s domestic dragnet collection of phone call records is illegal, political support for maintaining the legal provision that the government used to justify the program has all but vanished. For the first time in a dozen years, we have a real chance at ending one of the most abused and misused parts of US surveillance law. Congress should allow section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act to expire. Read more about A Sunset Is A Beautiful Thing

Siri Is Judging You

Author(s): 
Ryan Calo
Publication Date: 
May 26, 2015
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

In a fresh and recent whitepaper, Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes and law student Jodie Liu turn the standard privacy argument on its head: as they see it, many supposed threats to our privacy actually benefit it. Read more about Siri Is Judging You

Ireland’s voters approve same-sex marriage. Here’s how that happened.

Author(s): 
Henry Farrell
Publication Date: 
May 23, 2015
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

The official results make it clear that Ireland has voted yes to marriage equality. The final vote was 62.4% in favor of same sex marriage and 37.6% against. The yes vote was well over 70% in Dublin, and between 50 and 65 percent for most of the rest of the country. This is, on the face of it, an amazing result, given Ireland’s past traditions of conservatism. Two decades ago, in a similar referendum, Irish voters barely passed a measure allowing for divorce. Read more about Ireland’s voters approve same-sex marriage. Here’s how that happened.

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