Lauren Bridges, University of Pennsylvania (USA)

Lauren Bridges is a critical data studies researcher investigating the political, social, economic, and environmental implications of the so-called “cloud.”Lauren Bridges is a Ph.D. candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She researches the material and discursive entanglements of digital infrastructures in the (re)production of state and corporate power and pays particular attention to the stories we tell about technology and its imagined futures. Bridges has published in New Media & Society, Big Data & Society, Information, Communication & Society, and received awards and honorary mentions from International Communication Association, National Communication Association, and the Association for Internet Researchers. She holds an M.A. in creative writing, publishing, and editing from the University of Melbourne and a B.A. in business from Queensland University of Technology. Prior to Annenberg, she worked in academic publishing and the nonprofit sector with a focus on social policy.

Abstract

What are the implications of making home video surveillance systems available on networks and accessible to authorities?

Since 1970, home video security systems have been available on the market and, recently, they have become “smart”. Using the case study of an Amazon branch - Ring, which promises to create a 'safety ring around its house' - this conversation examines the ways in which a seemingly benign technology transforms when connected to the internet, bundled in the cloud, shared on social media, and made accessible to authorities. While smart home security cameras appear to be a new technology, they are part of a long history of racial policing in residential spaces that promises more home security for some and imprisonment for others.

Chair: Sofia Ponte (IADE/UE - ID+)

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